The Crossover
by HM Grayson
Summary: Or, How Tori Learned to Stop Witching and Love—Well, Tolerate Certain People. Project Genesis meets Project Phoenix from the point of view of one disgruntled teenage witch.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I needed something to get me to April. This is part one of three; it had to be a trilogy. Update in two weeks or so.

* * *

The Crossover  
Or, How Tori Learned to Stop Bitching and Love—Well, Tolerate Certain People

~O~O~

Considering their lives depend on staying hidden, Tori isn't the only who freaks out when some random guy on the street follows Chloe (it's _always_ Chloe) into the park and introduces himself.

"Hey, Chloe," the guy she's never met says. "I'm Corey. Can I talk to you about Project Genesis?"

When Corey explains about headaches and the future (seriously?) and Project Phoenix it doesn't make any of them feel all that much better. But Chloe decides to trust him and that means Derek's going to pretend to trust him (for now) and Simon might actually trust him and Tori doesn't really get a say about anything (well, she does tell him, "Eyes up or I'll pull them out" and that makes her feel a little bit better—it's not that he isn't cute, but she's looking for an excuse to make him really regret this).

Corey explains that it's no accident he's talking to them while Lauren and Kit are off trying to make contact with yet another disaffected old scientist (how many are there?). He's sort of planned this out. Oh, and, by the way, do you want to meet my friends?

They expect a trap.

Graveyard, Tori suggests, and Chloe isn't happy, but she agrees. Tori's super-super-powered and Derek's handy in a fight (and Simon is...there) but Chloe in a graveyard should be impossible to beat. So, it's all dark and spooky (well, it's the middle of the afternoon, but they're paranoid so it feels spooky) when Corey calls his friends to meet them in a graveyard.

They're ready for a fight—Maya and Daniel happen instead.

~O~O~

They'd gotten some details out of Corey while they waited. He's Canadian (not really surprisingly seeing as they're in Canada) and can see the future (that's a little more surprising). Oh, and occasionally he gets headaches so bad he pukes everywhere.

Maya and Daniel arrive just in time to pull him away, hover worriedly over him. The four kids from Lyle House look at each other and wonder if they should trust them.

"They're just doing what we did," Chloe says. "Looking for someone to help them."

"I don't think he was faking," Simon says. Simon still has puke on his shoe and he's not exactly happy about it.

"I like them," Tori says, mostly because Derek's frowning. He scowls at her when she talks (he always does that) but it fades to something else.

"She can hear us."

Curiosity keeps them there. It turns out Maya's a skinwalker (nothing surprises Tori anymore). Maya's like Derek, except her powers don't suck.

Daniel's a witch-hunter.

"I knew I liked you," Simon says. Her half-brother, ladies and gentleman, always hilarious.

(There are some days, now, when Simon says things to her and she knows he's just teasing. Other days when she thinks he just hates her. Other days when he does just hate her. They're getting better, though. He nods at Daniel and winks at her and maybe he isn't so bad)

"What does that mean?" Derek asks. It's polite, for Derek. While he usually thinks he can get away with being a jerk, Maya makes it very clear he has to play nice or she's walking away.

"I can tell you're not human," Daniel says, still struggling with the way they aren't human. They're different (and Tori thinks it's a good thing, thinks it's the only reason she's still alive, the only reason her life sucks, doesn't know what to think, really) and Daniel's still struggling to make it make sense. "Well, except for maybe him."

She cackles at Simon's expression.

"He's just useless in a fight," she says. Probably shouldn't have said that, really, since now it'll be three on three, but Corey looks pretty useless too. Maya and Daniel don't. They're both muscular and carry themselves like Derek (they're fighters, all of them). Tori wouldn't have been able to tell that, a few months ago. Her mother tried to kill her—Tori's a bit of a fighter now herself.

"I can also tell you're...you might be dangerous," Daniel says, "But you're not the bad guys."

"That's it?" Not that Tori's disappointed, but _everyone_ should be able to tell they're dangerous.

"And other things." When he continues, even though he doesn't really believe it himself, Tori gets it. They really don't have anyone else to trust. There's three of them and they're a team, but they don't know what else to do. They're trusting strangers because it's the only thing they can do. "I can...repel evil."

Tori laughs.

She didn't mean too, but...repel evil? Really?

(Except he _can._ It's pretty cool)

~O~O~

Maya and Daniel have a plan.

They need to go back for their friends and they have a plan and Corey (Corey found them the people for the plan). Talking everyone into trusting them enough so they can put their plan into action is harder. Maya speaks for the three of them, laying out the reasons they need to stick together. It impresses Tori, a bit (Maya's tough; the boys are smart enough to know this). Her word alone isn't enough but...

Maya Delaney, Daniel Bianchi and Corey Carling are on the lists they've taken from the Edison Group.

It's enough that they believe they're telling the truth. That's not the reason they help (Derek wouldn't have let them if that was the only reason). When they call Kit to tell them what they've found, he explains that, as a matter of fact, the threesome is the reason they're here in the first place. His contact called him because the three of them made contact.

"We really wanted to meet you," Corey explains. "And he would have made us wait too long."

Corey's already started trying to work them towards the proper end game, even if he only barely realizes it himself.

~O~O~

Tori goes in with Kit, Derek, Maya and Daniel (they don't have time to wait for reinforcements; the Nasts are planning to move their captives tonight). When Derek starts leading the way, she mutters, "Down boy," and he growls at her. Daniel steps in, reminds them they don't have time for bickering and Derek can't stand the thought of being considered the immature one so he stops.

Simon and Chloe and Corey are on surveillance duty. Liz is helping out today. Simon mutters something about being more useless than a dead girl and Tori tells him to sketch them an escape route.

Everyone's trying to be as quiet as possible until they have to fight their way out of there. They're sneaking around, quietly, quickly, when Maya just takes off. Tori casts the cover spell on both of them as they tear through the hallways. Tori has to jog to keep up with the cougar and then there's a door that Maya's unleashed her claws to tear apart.

Tori's learned an unlock spell or two. Maya gives her a look—a thank you—and Tori opens the door.

There's a cougar in there (Tori feels stupid, afterwards, since she'd been running around with a cougar the whole time, but how was she supposed to know that this cougar was a supernatural too?) and maybe Tori takes a step back or two. Maya doesn't. The two cats circle each other for one long moment and then Maya pounces. There's a lot of licking in the next minute or so.

That's how Tori meets Rafe.

~O~O~

Getting out of the building is a lot more complicated than getting in. It involves a lot more yelling and shooting and Tori isn't all that thrilled about it.

She watches in awe as Maya and Rafe leap and claw (she almost feels sorry for the guys—and then she sees the guns and her mental narration switches to "Faster kill pussycat"). The cats are fast and deadly and there is a LOT of blood in the hallway around them.

"We need to get through there," Kit says, pointing to the window at the end of the hall.

"Heads up," she calls and the glass _shatters_, leaving them an escape route. For the first time, Daniel really looks at her (it's not an admiring look). Tori can't stop the pleased grin, anyway. "That's the first time I've ever done that on purpose."

A combination of magic and rope manages to get them outside and to the building next door where they can lose their attackers.

~O~O~

Liz—or the floating wood that they assume is Liz—leads them to where the others are, in the van that Lauren's eager to drive away. They should disappear into the mall, some place way too public, but they stick to the van instead (the wild animals are a bit of a liability, she guesses).

It's almost too soon to be called a get away before they have to pull over so that Maya can shift back. Chloe goes with her; no sooner do they come back then Rafe needs a minute. "Great," Tori complains, but no one's listening to her as usual.

They have extra clothes for Derek. They're too big for Rafe, but Tori doesn't think Maya notices. When Rafe steps out from behind the trees, Tori's pretty sure Maya doesn't notice anything at all.

As cougars, they scared her. Human, they're making her blush. They're not even touching and Tori feels like a third wheel because their eyes are doing some seriously intense things to each other.

She's looking anywhere else, which is why she sees Daniel flinch.

"I guess animal magnetism is a real thing," she says, just to be sure. He's really not happy with that, but he doesn't say anything. New Girl—Sam Russo—does.

Tori saved her stupid ass and the girl has the nerve to start complaining about Tori and her inappropriate priorities.

"Why did we save her?" she demands to the group at large.

"Sam went to school with us," Maya says and it's pretty damn cold. Sam flinches, too. Maya doesn't notice (or doesn't care if she does), just turns her back on Rafe to check the cut on Daniel's head.

Derek manages to hold out until they're a little further along and then he has to change back, too. When he comes out of the forest, he looks exhausted. The skinwalkers clearly have the better deal. Rafe's practically glowing (though Tori thinks it might have something to do with Maya).

~O~O~

When they're safe, Rafe tells them that the Nasts put his sister down like the animal they thought she was (if they couldn't use her, they could use her DNA). Rafe tells them that he and Maya might end up mindless animals. It looks like Derek got the better deal, after all.

Maya takes it pretty calmly, considering.

"Thanks for coming to get me," Rafe says. To Maya. To Daniel, too. To all of them. "I know I don't deserve it."

"None of us deserve this," Daniel says.

~O~O~

They team up.

The five newbies aren't like some of the other kids they've found, with parents who know what's going on, parents who can hide with them, protect them. The new kids can't go back—they ask Kit if they can stay (Corey's certainty that staying together is the best thing for everyone is startling).

Maya talks him around, slowly but surely, all the logical reasons why the advantages of their combined resources outweigh the disadvantage that will be nine hormonal teenagers. Even now, they let her speak for them. Rafe wants in her pants and Sam seems only to be allowing it because it's what Daniel wants, but they let her lead them.

Kit eventually agrees.

~O~O~

It doesn't take them long to realize that it feels like they were always supposed to team up.

They find someplace new, out of the way. Lauren homeschools them (though Tori is aware she's going to be a freshman forever, at this rate). Kit has them training.

Tori and Simon work on spellcasting. Daniel and Sam watch, offer to help. Maybe Tori uses it as an excuse to knock Sam off her feet. Whatever. They four of them do sort of complement each other. The benandanti do _something_ that might be spellcasting—whatever it is, it _hurts_. She's kind of impressed.

Derek and the skinwalkers head through the forest together (Simon tells Chloe 'Derek and the Skinwalkers' is going to be the title of one of their adventures in his comic he never talks to her about). Derek's never looked happier (he only scowls 95% of the time).

Chloe doesn't seem to mind doing her own thing (Corey keeps her company, too exuberant to annoy Derek; anyway, Chloe wouldn't stand for it if Derek started getting all stupid and possessive), but seeing her all defenceless gives Daniel the bright idea to help them improve their hand-to-hand skills.

Not Tori's strong suit. Not at all.

She takes the lessons, though. Next time she's on her own, she's not getting kidnapped.

~O~O~

Simon looks at her strangely. "You get along with them."

"I know no one believes me," Tori snaps, "But once upon a time I had friends."

"You still have friends," Chloe offers. Tori wants to hit her, though, so she's not sure if it counts. She doesn't hit Chloe with a brick this time (maybe it's a sign of personal growth). She walks away and mutters thanks (maybe it's because there aren't any rocks around).

~O~O~

Tori might not have Simon's artist eye, but she does know high school drama. Especially since Sam is like the most obvious person. _Ever_.

Sam isn't as good at the whole benandanti thing as Daniel. Simon is enough of a challenge for her (well, Simon isn't much of a challenge for anyone, but still). The two of them clear out first, leave Tori and Daniel for longer, harder sessions.

"You should tell B2 to cut it out," she tells him once they're done for the day. The room's still mostly intact (Kit worries about that, worries about her, and Tori's kind of glad). The water tastes good.

"What?"

"If Sam keeps going on and on about how Rafe's ruining Maya's life, eventually Maya's going to realize she's doing it for you."

Daniel is the stereotypical boy next-door and he looks it, too (well, if the boy next-door was a wrestling champ because the biceps definitely give away that bit of history). His expression just then is not so pleasantville.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sam hates Rafe because he's ruining her one true pairing. Your one true pairing. You. Maya. Do I need to be clearer?"

"Maya's been my best friend forever," he says quietly, angrily. "She thinks of me like a brother."

"I ever tell you about the time I had a crush on my brother? Well, half-brother." He blinks. Tori hurries to add, "I didn't know he was my brother. I was on very heavy medication at the time. The point is you and Maya—"

"Are friends."

"Which is why you can't even look at Rafe without turning green?"

Daniel just turns and walks away.

Before, Tori had a boyfriend. Boyfriends, if you wanted to get super technical. She knows how to talk to guys. After Lyle house, she changed that: she knows how to talk to guys who aren't Simon and Derek.

Lately, she's been thinking she should change it: she knows how to talk to guys who aren't supernatural.

~O~O~

Maya and Rafe aren't dating. There are issues, or something, between them and Tori totally respects that. Or she would, if they'd stop having eye sex across the breakfast table.

She doesn't totally blame Sam for going after Rafe. It's kind of uncomfortable. It's giving Derek ideas.

"Not that he's said anything," Chloe says to her. If Lauren wouldn't immediately disapprove of her having sex with a werewolf, Chloe would probably be talking to her. Chloe and Tori, Tori and Chloe...they have issues, too (mostly Tori's, Tori is aware, thank you). But she's the best (she's the only) Chloe's got right now. Sam's too hostile and Maya's not quite as familiar with the Derek situation as Tori. If Simon wasn't Derek's brother, maybe Chloe would talk to him but...well, that would be super awkward.

"But his hands keep wandering?"

Chloe blushes (and bristles). "He's not like that. He's just—he likes making sure I'm near him, now. He's always beside me. It's getting worse."

"Like he wants to mark his territory?" Tori offers.

"Yeah. It's been a lot worse since Rafe came."

"Another predator," she says. She wants to ask Daniel (maybe even Sam) if Derek and the skinwalkers _feel_ different. Daniel said she and Simon feel different from each other, but he seems to be assuming that's the power difference (which is a lot better than Derek's assumption that it means she's evil). Daniel's been avoiding her, though. Tori has that effect on people.

"He doesn't want to eat me," Chloe says. She blushing bright red when Tori stops laughing; hip bumps Tori to make a point. "You know what I mean."

"I know you want to be eaten by the big bad wolf."

"_Tori_."

Tori knows if Chloe talks to Derek, he'll just feel guilty and then start withdrawing and repressing. She's heard Simon and Chloe complain (worry, it sounds the same) about Derek enough to know what he's like.

"Talk to the cougars. Maybe if they work their stuff out, the wolf'll settle down."

"Maybe."

~O~O~

Whatever Chloe says, Maya and Rafe are holding hands the next time Tori sees them.

They're supposed to be playing basketball in the back. Team building or something. There's not much contact involved, so it's theoretically safe, though Derek prefers watching. Maya and Rafe are smiling at each other and it's sweet and sickly and Sam doesn't like it.

"What is with the bad boy thing?" she declares loudly. "After everything he's done—"

Maya can handle herself. It's like the first thing Tori learned about her. Maya can handle it. Rafe seems pretty tough too, just letting Sam's anger slide off him until he has to address it and then being pretty chill about everything. They could handle it.

But enough is freaking enough already.

"That's it," Tori says. "Stop it. You're acting like a crazy fangirl. I'm sorry, Maya didn't hook up with Daniel. Really, I'm terribly sorry. But the pairing only exists in your head. So shut up!"

Tori can feel the energy building in her fingertips. She's a little bit of a show-off. Her fingers are sparking with electricity and she raises them slowly up in front of her.

"Okay?"

Sam snarls. "Little princess finds the internet and all of a sudden thinks she knows everything?"

"Our bitch is going to take your bitch," Corey mutters to Simon in the background.

"Did you just call my sister a bitch?"

The energy dies away. Tori looks over, certain she's heard wrong. They don't really talk about the whole sibling thing (that leads to thoughts about the whole crush thing that they both don't ever want to talk about). But it's...nice, hearing him say that.

"Nobody's taking anybody," Daniel says because he's been genetically engineered to always step up and be responsible. He steps between the two girls (keeps his back to Sam because Sam's devotion to him is just a little bit creepy). "Why don't we all take a break?"

Chloe grabs her arm. "We'll be inside."

Daniel's pulling Sam away for a conversation he should have had weeks ago, hopefully. Maya doesn't look very happy, but Rafe's talking to her. If they're lucky, they'll get all their drama sorted.

"I didn't mean anything," Corey offers as she storms past.

"I did threaten to enucleate you the first time we met," she admits. "If you're good, I'm good."

"Nuke me?"

"It should worry me that you know the word for that," Chloe says. "Why do I find it comforting?"

"You're weird," Tori explains with a smile.

~O~O~

Later, she's typing away at the computer and Rafe comes and slides to the floor beside her. He's good looking in an exotic way, but he knows it and so clearly wants to be Maya's it's ridiculous.

"Thanks for that. Daniel's trying to call off Sam as we speak. Don't know if it'll work but—thanks for telling her to back off."

"I like yelling at people." Tori glances up. "Where's the deadlier member of your species?"

"She's waiting for Daniel to finish." He's a little bit jealous, but trying to do the mature thing. Rafe isn't the quarterback type. He's not her type, either. She's the geek chic queen and he's definitely spent some time skulking in front of the principal's office, but she rescued him. She feels a bit responsible.

"They're as tight as they look?"

"Oh yeah. They always need to touch base. They're used to leaning on each other," Rafe explains, real understanding in his voice. He glances at the computer screen. "You're still trying to find..."

"The other two." Hayley and Nicole. "And Maya's dog. Am I supposed to understand that?"

"Maya's an animal person."

"That would explain you."

Rafe doesn't seem to take offence. He looks thoughtful. "First thing I ever remember you saying was that animal magnetism was a thing."

"I'm not relationship girl." Tori had no idea why she keeps speaking. "But I figure if she just wanted an animal, she'd go for Derek. He's bigger."

"Cats and dogs don't mix."

"Opposites attract," she says back. "Derek and Chloe being proof, I think."

"Guys that tall _always_ date short girls. It's like a law or something."

Tori has to concede the point.

~O~O~

Practice the next day is quiet. Tori focuses on her spells and does her best to ignore Sam, who is doing her best to ignore her, so everything works out. The Benandanti in Pyjamas (okay, so not really) leave first. Simon tells her Derek's not happy with her (he never is) but that he thinks she didn't screw up too badly.

"You were trying to do a nice thing. In a mean way but...you did it without losing your temper. He's not unhappy."

"Thanks, Simon. And thanks for—" She can't say it.

"The hand thing was awesome," he says awkwardly. "I'm definitely putting that in the comic."

They grin; they're good.

~O~O~

Daniel finds her in her room after dinner, looking like he expects her to kick him out. He's not as much of a dumb jock as he looks. "Can I come in?"

Tori goes back to her computer. "What do you want?"

He almost closes her door behind him, but seems to think better of it. The animals are going for a run, though, so he must have figured it was safe.

"You lied to Sam. It's not...not just in her head."

Tori's not sure when she became relationship girl, but apparently she did. Well, she already knows, so she suppose it's nice that he didn't bother to lie. It's enough for her to stop typing and look at him.

"You tell Maya that?"

"No. Even if Rafe wasn't there—"

"You're like her brother."

"She's my best friend," he explains. "I'm not ruining that."

"What did you tell Sam?"

"That it's in her head." He doesn't even look guilty. "And picking a fight with you is going to end badly for her."

"I wasn't going to kick her ass." Just scare her a little. A lot. "I could have."

"I know. Are you..." he searches for the words, "You and Simon—"

"_Heavily_ medicated. I cannot stress that enough. Besides," she says, waving her hand and accidentally slamming the door shut, "I got over that before I knew he was my brother. One minute alone with Simon was enough to cure me, thank you very much."

His lips quirk.

"I was going to ask if the two of you are good representations of your...species." The word seems to pain him.

"Oh."

He sits down on Chloe's bed and waits for an answer.

"According to Kit, Simon's probably going to always be, like, the weakest sorcerer in the room. I don't know if he's ever said that to Simon but...yeah. He's like an average witch, Kit said." Tori's seen her mother and she has her own opinions about what a witch can do, but it's what Kit said and he's the one who knows everything, apparently. "I'm...well, you've seen what I can do. I can do a lot more when I get really mad. Kit and my mom weren't that powerful but...I'm way more powerful than they were."

It helps Daniel get just what they did to her (and to Simon). In that second she knows that he understands why they aren't going to stop until she's dead.

"Sam's really aggressive. She can't help it. Rafe's sister—Corey's headaches are getting really bad."

Really, really bad, though they don't say that.

"We all met in group therapy," she reminds him. "They screwed up big time—screwed us up. We're not really supposed to talk about this; it makes me start blowing stuff up."

Daniel nods. On his way out, he says, "Hey. I meant to ask you: what's a one true pairing?"

Of course he doesn't know. Tori wouldn't be surprised if he didn't know how to turn on a computer. "Okay, today is your lucky day because I'm going to introduce you to the world of fanfiction. You will never have free time again."

Daniel doesn't really _get_ it. He doesn't mind it but it's definitely not his thing. But he does burst out laughing when she shows him the Snape/Teletubby smut-a-thon. He is quickly very disturbed, but he laughs first.

~O~O~

Tori never liked Chloe. She hated her, once, because of Lara. Now, she's not so sure. It mostly depends on how much she's slept the night before, how perky Chloe is and how much of a jerk Derek's being.

But the fact is only Tori is allowed to pick on Chloe.

_Only_ Tori.

So when Tori walks into the kitchen and sees Sam arguing with Chloe, she doesn't like it. And when she hears Sam's voice, even though she's down the hallway (Sam's _yelling_ at Chloe?) she really doesn't like it—especially when Sam starts lecturing Chloe about how she shouldn't let Derek talk to her like that. The thing about Chloe and Derek is that they look bad together, look really, really bad together, but Chloe isn't the damsel in distress with the big hulking asshole and if Derek talks to her like a jerk, Chloe's going to call him on it. Tori knows this. She's seen it.

Tori's about to call out, warn Sam to knock it off, when Sam raises her fist. Against Chloe. _Chloe_.

Sam goes flying before Tori really stops to think about it.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"It's f—f—fine, Tori," Chloe says. "We were just—"

It's hard to tell that the benandanti are the same species—they're just so different. Daniel is calm and controlled and Sam is aggressive and, well, stupid. She's quick to go on the defensive, quick to argue, quick to fight. And maybe Tori gets it, a bit. Simon and Derek get it too, the moving around, the always being afraid. Maybe they could have been friends. It's not going to happen.

Sam gets off the floor and boom go her powers, knocking Tori over.

"Princess never learned to mind her own business."

"I'm a princess, huh?" Electricity is humming in her hands and it feels good. Kit tells her to be careful, to hold back—she's missed feeling like this. "Then start bowing."

Sam dodges what she can—excellent reflexes and all that—but Tori's better. She slams the other girl to the ground, before crashing her into the chairs. Then the table. Then some more chairs. Tori's so mad she thinks she might be able to rip the earth open (she's been wanting to try that since she saw Chloe do it).

"Tori, stop it."

Daniel's voice cuts through everything and Tori finds that the magic has quieted, the way it never does when she...she gets so caught up and she doesn't mean...she turns, wonders when Daniel got there.

"Now that is a super power I want," Simon says. "Since when does Tori listen to anyone?"

They're all there, now, staring at her and Sam and what used to be the kitchen table. Maya heads over to Sam to check for injuries but the rest aren't moving, waiting for an explanation.

"Shut up, Simon." She feels empty without the magic. But the anger is gone. It always goes quickly once she realizes... "I—"

"Tori was just—" Tori shoots Chloe a look and the blonde girl does not say 'protecting.' That would be wrong. "Sam and I had a disagreement. Sam got aggressive. Tori stepped in."

"You overreacted," Derek says, but he's going to Chloe and for once he doesn't sound like he wants her gone yesterday. From the shame on his face, Tori would bet good money he heard the entire thing.

"I've been known to do that," Tori admits.

"You need to control your temper better," Kit says, trying to sound sympathetic.

Maya stands up, pulling Sam to her feet. "Just some superficial cuts and bruises. She'll be fine."

"You went too easy on her," Daniel says with a startling finality. He's going to Maya and they're marching Sam out of the room and Tori is _really_ glad she isn't Sam right then. Lauren looks like she wants to say something, but settles for turning to her niece and asking how she is.

Tori goes to look for a broom.

(It takes her hours to clean up, though she refuses help from everyone but Chloe, and when they go to bed they can still hear Daniel lecturing Sam on how pissing off their allies is a _really_ bad idea).

~O~O~

Time goes by.

Hanging with Corey is fun; he's almost like a normal person except for the occasional headache. She knew too many guys like him in high school. Guys who weren't good at anything, so they didn't annoy her the way the jocks and cheerleaders did, but who knew how to have a good time. Corey's really chill. And he's getting worse and worse and Tori might be a little callous but she's not totally heartless.

Chloe and Simon are the diplomatic face of Project Genesis (does that make her and Derek the dumb muscle? Well, Derek's a genius so...Tori's not sure she likes that). Chloe mediates the arguments between the two groups because she is far, far too nice.

But it's Corey and Simon who get them all getting along (well, Tori and Sam are never going to get along because Tori is a better bitch and Sam just refuses to admit it). They're the type of guys who get along with everyone, really, so it makes sense that they get along with each other. Corey even gets along with her.

"Tori and Corey," he says. "It's like we're meant to be."

"I can set your insides on fire."

But she won't, won't ever, because Corey just laughs. He doesn't mean it like that, anyway; he's just trying so he doesn't get out of practice. He enjoys her list of the painful things she'd do to him ("Maya's list is more bloody," he teases).

"Can you really?" Maya asks. She's not scared, just curious, so Tori admits she's getting there. Tori can do a lot of things—doing them when she wants to is a little trickier, but that's what Kit's spells are for.

~O~O~

It's Maya who gets Chloe talking. The way she tells the story later is that Daniel had a bad feeling, so Maya sat Chloe down and they tried to get to the bottom of it. Maya and Chloe have become good friends; it's not long before Chloe almost tells her what's going on. Then she stops, and the two girls go and get Tori.

"Your mom's here," Chloe tells Tori. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I thought I'd be able to get rid of her by myself."

"Your mom's...?" Maya trails off.

"Dead. Then Chloe used her to kill Dr. Davidoff." If Tori sounds a little gleeful, well, then that's how it goes. "It was awesome."

Chloe doesn't think so—Chloe didn't sleep so well after they escaped—so Tori does her best to repeat it as often as she can.

Maya accepts it, for now, and they get down to business of getting rid of Chloe's pesky ghost problem. They have to tell the boys, but the sordid story doesn't really embarrass Tori.

"My mother was part of the Edison Project. She tried to hunt us down, tried to kill us. Apparently, she's not going to let death stop her."

It's a struggle, to keep her voice even, but she manages. Diane Enright was a bitch (this is a fact). Tori is not sorry she is dead (this is a lie).

No one really has anything to say about that.

"I think Dad should be able to get us in touch with another necromancer," Derek suggests and they begin to plan. Tori doesn't really breath until Chloe declares, "She's gone again. Hopefully, this time for good."

Great. Tori even manages a smile.

~O~O~

It's not safe to go outside by yourself, so Tori climbs to the attic. No one comes up here (except Chloe and Derek, sometimes, but they're asleep right now), so she fits herself into the corner by the dusty boxes and...well, she doesn't cry. Because she isn't sorry the witch is dead. She just...wallows a bit.

The door creaks open and she sees Maya's head, but she ducks into the shadows. Too slowly. Maya makes her way over and sits down cross legged in front of her.

"You didn't have to tell us if you didn't want to."

"We need to know everything about each other if this is going to work." Tori wrinkles her nose at the familiar words coming out of _her _mouth. "Tell your best friend he needs to stop talking to me."

Maya smiles, but it doesn't reach her eyes. Tori hates it when people pity her.

"It's not like I told you everything. Like how she knew what was happening to me and didn't tell me. Just blamed me for it, told me to take more meds. How I took them and when they didn't work she'd say it was my—"

Tori reminds herself to exhale.

"My biological father's out there right now," Maya says. "He's working for the Nasts—he might be the one who told them about us in the first place. He's trying to get me locked up. He didn't raise me, so I know it's not the same thing but...I want you to know I sort of get it."

Maya didn't spend her whole life trying to make him proud, trying so hard to be perfect just like Lara even though she couldn't, even though—Tori can't get mad anymore. Bad things happen.

Tori still sniffles a little, but Maya doesn't say anything.

~O~O~

Kit (Tori tried saying Dad, in her head once, and it was just...no) gets a USB from someone, but he leaves it to Tori to trudge through. It's what she's good at and he knows she likes this, being in control of what she's good at instead of having it about to blow up in her face every three seconds. There's a long story about how Kit got this, but that's not her job. Her job is to go through the files, find what's hidden just under the surface. They trust her for this. It was the first thing they trusted her to do and even now she takes pride in it.

There must have been about twenty messages to and from and about a Dr. Bianchi before the name clicks.

Tori has to go back, re-read the messages, to figure out...when she goes to find Daniel it's not because she feels sorry for him. She gets it too much to feel sorry for him. It makes her mad, actually, but she's working on her temper, so she just hunts him down.

Shows him proof that his mother thinks he's just a lab experiment gone wrong.

"There's about three dozen to do with her," Tori explains. Daniel keeps his eyes on the computer screen. "I don't think they're important or anything, so I was thinking just have you look them over or something and then I could just oops them into oblivion. If you wanted."

It takes a minute, but eventually Daniel stops staring at the words (that prove mommy never loved him). "What?"

"I've got mad computer skills," Tori explains. "Unlike everyone else, I know how to delete things so they stay gone."

"That's..."

"Nobody else needs to see this."

"Your mom send e-mails like this? Do anything she could to get away from you?"

"Nah. She wanted to kill me herself." Tori's a little proud of how nonchalant that all comes out. "My dad handed me over to the psycho over the phone, I think."

"She left me with my dad." Daniel's explaining all this to the computer and not Tori, but she stays beside him anyway. "He'd get drunk some nights. Most nights. Call me evil. A freak. An abomination. He knew there was something wrong with me."

"According to Sam, you're the most perfectest wonderfulest benandanti to ever exist. I think we can safely say your parents were idiots."

He laughs, not happily, but it's a laugh.

"Maya would take you in?" It's not really a question.

"Only on the really bad nights." It explains how he was so well prepared for a life on the run, Tori thinks. He already knew how to take care of himself. "She wanted me to just move but—I couldn't just leave him."

"That's really stupid." She tries not to look at him. "Almost as stupid as me still wanting to call my dad sometimes."

"Stupid to want to delete emails that might be important."

"Wouldn't want Derek to have to find a new insult."

"Leave them," he says. "We need to leave them in case they can help."

"You sure?"

"It's only fair," he admits. "You told everyone about your mom. Maya's told them about her bio dad. Why should my mother be some sort of secret?"

"Because she's not actively trying to kill us?"

Daniel actually smiles. "Thank you, Tori. But leave them."

"I do not get your sense of right and wrong," she admits.

Sometimes, he and Derek agree so easily it's like they're one stubborn, over-protective person. But she's never seen him resort to Derek's brand of raised by wolves manners; Daniel plays the small town boy part perfectly. Always gentlemanly, always polite.

Derek just wants to protect his family; once Maya's safe, Tori's not really sure what Daniel wants. She thinks it might not just be about protecting himself; she thinks he doesn't mind when she tries to tear the world apart because...she's not sure. He doesn't yell at her, though, just tells her to work on her aim.

"Comes with the genetics."

"Probably all screwed up, then." But she says it with a smile and he seems to understand she meant it mostly as a joke.

He just says thank you again and she goes back to work.

~O~O~

They're hiding in plain sight but the Project Phoenix kids are getting nervous.

"I can't blame them," Simon says one night. It's just the four of them. They don't want to be the ones to point out the obvious. "Corey's going through three or four cans a day."

"The last time they went hunting Rafe..." Chloe licks her lips. "Maya thinks he might be starting to forget."

"Sam's still just useless and short-tempered," Tori says. "Daniel says his dreams are more vivid, but he seems fine."

"Dad's looking for help," Derek says.

"Do they trust that?" Tori asks.

"Will he be able to find it?" Simon asks, the more important question.

Chloe stands up. "We didn't know what our powers could do until we tried. Let's see what Corey can find."

~O~O~

Corey finds Hayley.

Not just Hayley, but if you listened to Corey, that's what it sounds like. They show him pictures of his friends, of Annie, and he looks at Hayley and finds her. Kit and Lauren say it's impossible. The kids say they're going in anyway.

Maya argues for ages. They don't want to go in alone, or anything, but they need to get Hayley back out. Kit is adamant—the Edison Group already has the St. Clouds on their tail. No one wants to give the Nasts a chance to join the chase. Daniel steps in, starts repeating the point, mentions what else Corey thinks he saw in there. It's enough to make Kit consider.

Kit and Lauren get on the phone with their friends. It takes days, weeks, but it doesn't matter that Maya and Daniel don't have a plan this time. Tori thinks Daniel's going to talk himself hoarse, but _finally_ Kit's friends agree. They're going to storm the castle walls, see what other secrets the Nasts have in there.

Kit has one stipulation—it is a stupid ass stipulation.

~O~O~

Tori and Chloe are super-super-human. Not to brag or anything, but they are probably the most powerful members of their respective supernatural races. EVER. So why are they stuck as mere lookouts?

Yes, Tori is grumbling. No, she is not being mature. That is not the point. The point is that she is stronger than all of them and she gets stuck outside because Kit thinks he can control her life.

"He's just worried about us," Simon says.

"He should worry about you," Tori snaps. "But I'd be fine. And he's not stopping Derek."

Chloe flinches, nervous. Derek's seventeen now, though, so he gets a pass, or something. And he and the cougars work well together, communicating in body language and claws.

~O~O~

Corey's staying behind, but the other four are going in. Sam's going in and Tori could wipe the floor with her with her eyes closed. It's not fair. She hunts down Daniel to tell him so.

"I don't know what you want me to do about it," he says, bewildered.

"You talked Kit into this stupid thing. You can convince him to take me along." Derek might be able to, but Derek doesn't like having her around. Maya might, but Daniel knows what she can do a lot better than Maya. It'll sound best coming from him.

"I don't think anyone could convince him to send his daughter into this kind of danger."

"I'm not his daughter!" Tori shouts. The picture frames rattle and she—

"Calm down, Tori," Daniel says and she does.

She calms down, the way she always does when he tells her to. Even though she never listens to anybody, not Derek, who scares her sometimes, or Kit, who saved her ass, or Chloe, who keeps sticking her neck out for the dumb witch who keeps putting their lives in danger. The only person she listens to when she's beyond listening is...

"What did you do?" she demands. "To Kit? To us? What can you do?"

Daniel looks at her like she's crazy—she was. Maybe she still is. Maybe she went to Lyle House and never came out. But if she is still Tori Enright then she gets what she wants.

"Tell me!"

"I—I told you guys. I can persuade people do things for me. Small things, if they already want to do them."

Sure he told them; he didn't tell them he was this good at it.

"Like break into a Nast building?"

"For Hayley and Nicole. For Corey who—" is getting and worse. "For Rafe and his sister and—I had to, Tori. We promised we'd help them. We have to find a way to help us."

"Maybe you do but Kit and his friends—"

"They owe us," he snarls. She's never seen him angry before; annoyed, exasperated, scared, but not furious, hands shaking, red creeping over his face, wants to hit something until his bones shatter angry (angry the way she gets angry). "They had no right to do what they did but they did it anyway. They made us freaks, Tori. And they didn't tell us. They left us—sold us. They thought they could play god—well, that comes with responsibilities. They might not want to, but they're helping us."

The anger fades slowly. Daniel continues, "This is the least they can do for us. We're not putting you guys in danger, but those scientists? Ex-members of the Edison Group? Yeah, they're putting their lives on the line. They should put their lives on the line. They made our lives hell and patted themselves on the back."

"You're letting Derek come."

"I—Derek's very protective. I couldn't tell him no."

"Then why can't I come?"

"You still want to come?"

"Your power convinced me you're right. The way it convinces you." Because, Daniel? _Always _thought he was right.

He doesn't seem to like that, though.

"I wasn't trying to—It shouldn't have—"

"It didn't," she assures him instinctively. "I just like destroying things."

Anything, that her mother might once have—Diane Enright did important things. So many important things that she didn't have time for her daughter. Tori wants to destroy a lot of things.

"You get sloppy when you're angry."

"So?"

"So, it's dangerous."

"I'm dangerous!"

"I'm not saying you're not."

"I'm more powerful than you are."

"I'm not saying you're not powerful, Tori," he says, exasperated. "Unless we were with Chloe in a graveyard, I have no doubt you could take the rest of us out. Probably without even trying that hard. You are very powerful. But it doesn't matter if you're powerful if you don't realize that sometimes you can't do everything yourself. That's why you get left behind."

"You think you're always right about everything, don't you?" she snarls. And then has to take a few quick breathes so he doesn't catch fire (not that she can't control herself).

"I think Kit won't let you go. I think he's right."

"Right and wrong don't mean anything. All I have to do is go to Kit, explain what you can do, what you did, and I'll be right."

Because if you had the power, you were right. And Tori had lots of power.

"Daniel?" Maya pokes her head in. Tori knows she has superhearing, that she must have heard something. All Maya says is, "Ready to go save Hayley?"

They both look at her.

"Is that why you let her talk for you guys?" Tori demands. "Because you didn't want to make us do anything we didn't want to in the beginning? So we'd trust you, so you could manipulate us later?"

"I didn't let Maya do anything. She talks for us because she's smarter than I am."

He admits it easily, not afraid of Maya's power. He's never been afraid of her power, either (wouldn't be able to keep fighting her if he was), even though he's seen first-hand how little she can manage it.

"What have you made me do?" Her voice is calmer, though he better not think she's not still pissed.

"The only time I've ever used my powers on you is when you...get caught up in your magic." Her mother used to call them tantrums. "I swear, Tori. And I only did that..."

Someone had to. She couldn't.

"We need to go," Maya interrupts. "Tori, we'll disappear forever after this if that's what you want. If you think we should have explained more. But right now, please let us go save Hayley."

Maya Delaney looks at her. Nothing about her looks like Liz, Liz who was always sweet and kind and up, Liz who made her laugh when Tori thought she couldn't do _anything _right. Kit saved her life. Kit is part of the reason she exists in the first place. He's part of the reason she's a danger to everyone around her unless the witch-hunter tells her to knock it off.

Liz Delaney did not deserve her fate.

Tori's going to make the Edison Group pay for that, one day.

"When you guys get back, I'm going to be super awful to both of you. I'm warning you now—you should have let me come."

"Thank you," Daniel says and then both he and Maya are gone.

~O~O~

There is no one like Tori Enright. She's not bragging. It's just true. She's a super powered witch/sorcerer hybrid on the run from an evil mafia-like organization. There are others with her, other supernaturals, but they aren't like her.

But they're all she has left.

Sometimes she even thinks it's enough.


	2. Chapter 2

After the attack on the Nast building, they split up (just in case). There's a week before the rendezvous and Tori does a lot of thinking. It's not the most logical of stuff, but she has some thoughts. When Derek finally shows up she pulls him, Chloe and Simon aside. She tells them Daniel's a little more powerful than they thought.

Derek looks uncomfortable and admits Maya and Daniel told him as much. Chloe scowls at him and wonders, "Were you going to tell us?"

"Yes. I just—" Derek rarely looks unsure around Tori; it's weird. "It's not something he can help. I didn't want us labelling him a monster for something..."

Maya and Daniel (and the rest, to a lesser extent) come together. There was no way he was letting go of Maya and Rafe, the freedom of running with others, even if they were cats (he stalks Chloe less now that he has a pack). And maybe Derek knew a bit too much about powers everyone was scared of.

"So you let Tori hang around a guy who could make her do anything he wanted?" Chloe demands.

Chloe is way, way too nice—it's the only explanation Tori has. Because if someone had done to Tori what Tori did to Chloe? They'd be lucky to still be breathing. Instead, Chloe is glaring up at the boyfriend she adores (the boyfriend who adores her) outraged on Tori's behalf even though Tori...well, Chloe is too nice.

"Whoa, whoa," Simon says, raising his hands. "Chloe, that's—I'm not exactly thrilled to hear they've been trying to manipulate Dad—"

"Encourage," Derek corrects.

"We can't fight," Chloe says. "We'd lose. They have too many resources—"

"I know."

Chloe narrows her eyes at Derek. "You're up to something. You told him to keep it on the down low. You—what are you thinking?"

Nothing but a vaguely formed plan, but it's more than Tori had hoped for. She's not the only one who doesn't like people stalking them. They need more information, they need to be surer of their own powers, but...Derek and Maya might not have anything yet, but they will.

~O~O~

When Chloe marches away, Tori follows after her. Girl solidarity. Simon stays behind to remind Derek (yet again) that they don't need protection.

"It's not like they even came up with anything," Chloe mumbles, all understanding.

"You just don't like him plotting with people who aren't you."

Chloe looks rueful. "It is our thing."

"It'll stay your thing. Derek's a little obsessed, in case you hadn't noticed."

Chloe looks like she wants to argue, but knows it's the truth. Instead, she sighs. "Can we just stay here and be irrationally jealous of Maya for a little longer?"

It's not really irrational jealousy on Tori's part, but she doesn't say that. It will go away; it always does. She's a teenage girl—the next cute boy she sees will cure her. If worse comes to worse, there's always Corey.

"Sure."

~O~O~

When they get back, Derek apologizes, Chloe accepts and that is that. The four of them agree that while they aren't exactly happy with what Daniel can do, they aren't going to punish him for what he is. That would make them too much like the Edison Group.

There's one more confession Derek has to make. "When we were in there we found Hayley first. She's the one who told us where to find Nicole. Maya—I don't think Maya wanted to go back for Nicole."

"Maybe she has dangerous powers, too," Chloe says.

"Nicole was making a play for Daniel," Simon explains. He got all the gossip from Corey. Boys. "Before. Maybe Maya doesn't want the drama."

"So she leaves Nicole in the hands of the Cabal?" Derek asks.

"I'll talk to Maya," Chloe says. About a few things.

"And Nicole," Tori says. "I mean, I'm not going to befriend her because—obviously—but it's better you than Simon."

Tori hates helpless tiny blonde girls.

"Hey," Simon says. "I'm friendly."

"Too friendly."

"Tori's right," Derek says and it shuts Simon (and her) up fast. "If we're dealing with a love triangle, we don't want to make it worse."

~O~O~

Tori isn't surprised that Maya and Daniel are quick to find her when they make the rendezvous point. They keep their word—she trusts _that_ about them.

She hands Daniel the papers she's printed off.

"What's this?" There's the faintest hint of blush on his face.

"I got it off a BDSM website," she says (trying to shock him and happy she succeeds). "Ignore the bit at the top. We can't have safewords, since no one but you can tell when you're using your powers, but I figured you'd be all honourable and stuff if I made you sign a physical contract."

Maya can't stop snickering, though she says, when Daniel glares at her, "It does seem fair."

"Chloe gave me the idea." She lets that mental image sink it, just for the hell of it. "Basically, it states that you are never, ever to use your powers on me or anyone else in the group. It also states that I'm giving you permission to use your powers on me when my powers are getting out of control. You have to be careful to say calm down and not stop, but you can use them then. Only then."

He studies her. Tori silently he hopes he doesn't make her say it—she needs him to use them, sometimes.

"What happens when I'm not there, Tori?"

"I can control them," she insists. "I can. It's just a..."

"Safeword?" Maya's still snickering and Tori isn't as amused as before.

Daniel just asks, "Where do I sign?"

~O~O~

There's too many of them now. There's seven from Project Phoenix—Maya and Daniel, Corey, Rafe, Sam, Hayley and Nicole. They really should split up. None of them want to.

The information Kit found at the Nast building means Kit really should go off to save the world. He wants them to split up and Maya and Daniel come back with a different plan. Go to ground. But for kids brought up in the middle of nowhere that means something that Tori doesn't really understand.

Camping.

~O~O~

Hating pathetic useless blonde girls is something Tori is very good at. It comes naturally to her and she spent most of her life honing her skills around Lara.

But when Hayley begs to be a taken to the mall before they head to the campsite, Tori goes with her.

Hayley is...not as bad as Tori thought.

~O~O~

When they get back, Tori stomps over to where Daniel and Corey are talking.

"You're such a dick," she snaps at Corey, who she always thought was harmless and a lot of fun. Apparently, a little too much fun.

"What?"

"You. Dick. I do not know why Hayley still talks to you."

"That's harsh."

"If you don't like a girl, stupid, all you have to do is tell her. Even Simon knows that one. You don't—you just tell her."

Or tell her you have a crush on someone else. Whatever. It's simple.

Tori does not glance at Daniel, just watches the way Corey looks a little hurt. Well, good. Not hurt enough to keep his mouth shut (or maybe it's his stupid way of apologizing).

"I ever tell you how hot you are when you get mad?" Corey offers. Daniel hits him in the shoulder (one of them has sense).

"Seriously, Corey?"

"Sorry, Tori."

He gives her a hopeful look that she can't resist.

"Sorry, Corey."

He laughs, delighted. He's not a complicated guy, Corey. "Hey, Orey-o, I really am..."

"Don't apologize to _me_."

~O~O~

Corey isn't a bad guy—just really, really dumb sometimes. Tori catches him talking to Hayley (just talking) that night and from Hayley's expression, he figured out the right thing to say. She slips away without getting caught.

Good boy.

~O~O~

The kids (and Lauren) head to a cabin; Tori brings her computer. They'd gotten a ton of stuff from when they busted out Hayley and Nicole and she's just dying to shift through it. Chloe is busy making friends.

Maya won't say much. Nicole says a lot. Chloe is confused, but keeps at it. Eventually, she'll figure out.

Chloe maybe tiny, maybe blonde (again) but she is definitely not useless.

~O~O~

The cabin belongs to someone who doesn't use it. There's only three rooms—boys, girls, girls and the guys get the couches and your powers won't help you if Lauren thinks you're getting ideas—but with some air mattresses and canned food, they manage well enough. It's a learning curve, but Tori's been on that for a while.

"I didn't think you'd be interested in this," Maya says as they hike through the woods. Tori's trying to learn what's edible.

"I have layers."

"I always saw you as a firm believer in toilet paper," Rafe says, following along after them. Trailing after Maya seems to be one instinct that's just as human as it is cougar.

"Oh, I am. I just like…" Tori doesn't know how to explain. "As long as you guys are around, I might as well learn something from you."

"We're not going to leave," Maya says. "Not unless you want us to."

"You forget that the majority of my conversations end in kidnappings."

It's supposed to be a joke, but it's too true to be funny.

"Someone tries to kidnap you here..." Maya growls. Rafe's arm is too tight around her shoulders, but Tori just grins. After having to work so hard to get Derek to stop constantly broadcasting his disapproval, it's no wonder she's so willing to trust Maya.

~O~O~

They make fires at night and talk about what they hope might happen to them. None of them have graduated high school (Derek's college level math notwithstanding). It kind of puts a damper on the whole career thing. Mostly they wonder if they're ever going to have normal lives.

"I'm going to make a fortune off our comic," Simon promises. "I'll look after the rest of you."

"Or Chloe could make a movie on us," Corey suggests.

"No supernaturals in my movies," Chloe says, "Ever."

They go around and try to guess who would play them in a movie. Rafe and Maya are graceful about the fact the only Native actors they can come up with are 'the guys from _Twilight_' and when they try to find Latino actors to fake it, they can't come up with many more. When it comes to finding Korean actors...the game sucks.

Simon just shrugs. "Not that I'm super important to the plot anyway."

"You helped get us out," Nicole insists. Hayley is quick to add her agreement and Tori rolls her eyes at the way he laps up the attention.

~O~O~

"What did you want to be?" Tori asks Daniel as she types away at the computer. The cats and dog take shifts at night, guarding the place, but he stays up with her for the first little while, just in case he feels something is off.

"Lawyer."

It doesn't surprise Tori at all.

"And of course you weren't interested in the money."

"Is it a bad thing to want to put the bad guys away?"

"No. And you'd definitely be the best at figuring out who's bad and good. There's nobody out there I'd trust more with all that. It's just..." Tori bites her lip, trying to figure this out. Her fingers even stop typing. "I bet even you make mistakes."

"Everybody does."

"Yeah, but do you know that?"

"I'm stubborn. I admit that. But I'm not—I listen to other people."

"You listen to Maya. Maybe Derek, sometimes." When his face clouds over, she hurries to add, "That was a joke."

"You really think I'm that sure about being right?"

"No. I just...I think right and wrong might just be as much about who's in charge as they are about how you feel about them."

"Maybe that's why I need to be in charge," he explains. "So I can make what's right right and what's wrong wrong."

"What? You're a control freak? I hadn't noticed."

"Ha ha. I've noticed you haven't let anyone else touch your computer."

She keeps it locked up during the day (not that anyone would give away their position but—she's paranoid, now).

"You've been on edge since we got out here."

He looks down at the computer, at the secrets that were hiding in there that she's trying to find. "I've been having a bad feeling lately. Maya's on edge, too. There's something...Be safe, Tori."

When her voice returns she says, "Superpowered, remember?"

"Right."

Daniel climbs to his feet then, apologizes for distracting her; she does need to work after all. If Daniel has a bad feeling...Tori types faster, trying to find an answer in the files.

~O~O~

Tori's not exactly a morning person and she's not exactly a people person. She and Sam get into stupid fights about everything all the time (they're starting to get each other, Tori thinks). But when Nicole 'forgets' to clean when it's her turn, Tori is pretty nice about calling her on it (considering Nicole's status as tiny, useless blonde girl minus Hayley's knowledge of hair care).

Nicole loses it.

It's like being yelled at by a very angry, very yappy purse-dog. Maybe Tori shouldn't have said that—it just makes Nicole angrier and Daniel has to come talk her down while Maya tugs Tori away, saying a fight isn't worth it.

"She called me—"

Tori is almost impressed by all the synonyms Nicole knows for whore.

"She's been through a lot lately," Chloe says. "I've never seen her like that."

Hayley and Maya aren't looking at them.

"What?" Tori demands, but Derek's giving orders about everyone's responsibilities for the day so they have to hush.

~O~O~

When she and Hayley are getting firewood, Hayley tells her, "She'd get like that sometimes. Side effects, they said. Then they'd take her away for a while and when she came back she was Nicole again. She's really…territorial, I guess."

"Cleaning plates isn't part of her territory?"

"She doesn't like you. At all." Hayley offers, "She doesn't hate you like she hates Maya. At least there's that."

"Derek's territorial. Nicole's...possessive." Tori blushes. "You mean she thinks I..."

Hayley shrugs apologetically. "You do. Don't you?"

"Does everyone know?"

"Does Daniel know?" Hayley shoots back. Well, that is the question Tori wants answered, so she forgives it. "Corey said...yeah, I'm pretty sure he does."

"Great." Where was a Cabal to kill you when you needed it?

"Corey says he says we don't have time for stuff like that. He can't mind, though. If he's not with Maya or Corey, he's with you." Tori is not pleased to hear it's not just in her head. Nope. She knows it's just to train—he takes it very seriously and she's always up for it (not just because he's not unfortunate looking when he's sweating—Tori wants to control her magic). "Nicole's noticed. That's why she's getting..."

"Crazy?"

Hayley looks off into the distance; she shivers. Tori demands, "What?"

"Nothing," Hayley says. The way she says it...they just met. Tori isn't sure. But she thinks Hayley wants to say a lot more than that.

~O~O~

There's a lake near the cabin, just enough out of earshot that you could get away with murder if you were inclined. Maya starts taking a bath there alone just before sundown—tells everyone else to give her space. Daniel doesn't like it; when Tori asks him what's wrong he tells her a bit about Serena (the dead girlfriend—you can't compete with dead girlfriends or living best friends, so Tori should give up, like, yesterday). He doesn't stop Maya, though, just looks worried about her.

Maybe that's why Nicole does it, really.

~O~O~

Tori's walking through the forest with Chloe, who's complaining about how the cougars are ruining the hunts she used to have with Derek. Tori actually feels sorry for her because if she had a boyfriend and they were stuck in a cabin in the middle of nowhere all alone (well, not alone, but there's only Lauren)—

Rafe's shouts cut through the air.

She and Chloe run to the edge of the lake. They're above it, overlooking everything, so they see Rafe rushing into the water. See the ripples that must have been—

"Maya!" His voice is clear now.

Chloe and Tori can handle a crisis. They could dive down, but it's pretty shallow where they are. Chloe rushes off to get help. Tori casts—she tries to. She tries to cast on what she can't see and for a second Tori wonders if this is how other witches feel (how Simon feels) where the words trip out of your mouth and they don't work the way they're supposed to.

Rafe is almost there and Tori's almost down the cliff by the time the sensing spell clicks into place.

But…Rafe is far enough away from where she thought Maya went down that there shouldn't be _two _life signs in the water. A fish? Does it work on fish? Tori is too panicked to remember. They're too tangled together, anyway, so she just binds the both of them, hoping one of them is Maya. When they stop moving, she closes her eyes and tries to lift.

Derek and Daniel burst through the trees (Sam just behind them). They dive into the water, to where Rafe is struggling (which is strange—she's got Maya elevated, so why isn't he swimming back?). When she reaches the bottom, she understands.

It wasn't a fish. It was Nicole. Rafe was struggling to keep _both_ girls above water.

The four of them pull the girls to the shore, where the rest of them are gathered (well, Corey's not there, so Lauren's with him; he's not doing so hot). Both girls are coughing, spitting up water.

"What happened?" Derek demands.

"She put a spell on us," Nicole says, pointing a finger at Tori. "I couldn't swim. We were drowning because she wouldn't let us move."

"They went under before I cast anything. I was trying to get them out," Tori explains. It sounds weak, but it's the truth. Rafe backs her up, saying they were just trying to rescue the girls. He makes it sound like they always knew both girls were swimming together (Daniel looks at her WTF expression and raises an eyebrow, but she doesn't say anything; she has a bad feeling about this).

"I shouldn't have invited her for a swim so close after dinner," Maya says. "We must have gotten cramps."

When Daniel looks at Maya, he takes in the wet hair first, then the clothes she shouldn't really be wearing if she was taking a bath. Then he looks at her bare legs. At the scratch marks on her legs.

Tori has a _really_ bad feeling about this.

"I told you the bitch was dangerous," Nicole says, coughing still. "I told you but you just listened to your precious Maya."

"Nicole," Daniel says in a light voice, "I'm so glad we can talk right now. I didn't know you were strong enough to pull down Maya. Why didn't you tell me?"

And somehow they all fall under his spell for just a few minutes, watching the way he gently brushes the hair off Nicole's face, watching the way she blushes under his touch.

"You wouldn't have listened. You never saw." Tori stays away from Nicole for the most part, but she's never heard Nicole sound like this before. "You don't see me when they're there."

"You did this for me? You got rid of Serena for me?"

Nicole nods like a puppy. "Just for you." Words that she's been wanting to say for ever, telling him what he wants to hear (since he asked so nicely). She tells him how she waited, how she watched, how she knew she had to act fast before Serena destroyed their future together.

"Thank you for telling me, Nicole."

Daniel puts his hand on her chest. Over her heart. I repel evil, he told them, the first time they met. Tori remembers and she gets what he's about to do. He doesn't have tells like a normal person but she's fought him enough times to know.

Her hand goes up, her lips part—Daniel blasts Nicole into the forest.

They all stare. They all just stand there until Derek gets up and checks for a pulse. Maybe it was the tree that killed her. They don't know. She's dead and Daniel's just staring at the water. Maya moves out of Rafe's arms to go to him but he just demands, "Were you trying to get yourself killed?"

"I was patrolling the edges," Rafe speaks up. "I should have caught her before she got in the water."

"She suspected you'd be around, she probably came in from further down the shore. We should have—I needed to be sure, Daniel. I couldn't just say—"

"She killed Serena. Because of me."

Maya wants to argue, but she can't.

"We have to get rid of the body," Derek says, picking it up. "So she won't bother Chloe."

"It might be good to have a body nearby," Chloe says. "Extra protection."

"Her ghost could—" Simon bites down the words.

"I'll make sure she's not going to tell anyone where we are," Chloe says. It makes Tori shiver; little Chloe Saunders, everyone.

"We should tell Corey," Hayley says to her after the other three are gone. "Rafe."

Rafe comes. Hayley leads the way, leaving Maya and Daniel alone. "She was all I had in there. I...told her things. Things they knew. I didn't think—I didn't want to believe—"

"You didn't know," Rafe says as they walk. "How could you know?"

"She _killed_..."

Hayley's crying by the time they get back. Corey opens up his arms and she crawls into them. She won't let Rafe be the one to tell him (he's as much an outsider as Tori is, she realizes). Hayley has to tell Corey; Corey sits there in shock, afterwards.

"Daniel killed her?" he asks.

"Yes," Rafe says bluntly.

Corey can only nod.

~O~O~

It gets dark and they go to bed. Hayley's apparently staying with Corey and even Lauren doesn't comment (Lauren's too busy telling Kit how dangerous Project Phoenix is). Tori and Chloe just go to their room and curl up in their beds. Tori can't sleep, though.

She's typing away at the computer when Maya comes in. The older girl comes over, thanks her for helping to get her out of the water. "I didn't want him to find out," she explains, even though Tori didn't ask why she was dumb enough to have only Rafe watching her back while trying to tempt a murderer.

"He'll forgive you," Tori says. She's pretty sure it's true.

"I'm more worried about him forgiving himself."

~O~O~

They settle into a different routine. Daniel doesn't talk to her as she works, now; he goes down to the water when it gets dark and he...Tori doesn't know what he does. It gets on her nerves though. A week of that and she's marching into the night to talk to him.

It's _really_ dark outside the Cabin when the sun sets, but she has her light ball spell. She picks her way over to the figure she can make out by the water's edge. Daniel shifts over on the rock he's using, gives her room to sit down and she lets the ball of light hover in front of them.

"Maya didn't want to say anything until she was sure," Tori offers. She doesn't know what else to say. "You shouldn't be angry with her."

"I'm not. She should—I was going to break up with Serena. Only I put it off and then—"

"Crazy psycho," Tori says sharply. Sure, he's traumatized, but Tori's never been good at controlling her temper. "You are not responsible for the crazy psycho. You had no way of knowing—"

"I had every way! Do you know what I can do, Tori? I should have known something was wrong. I should have—I should have saved her."

"You can't always know. I can't always control...anything. But I'm working on it. I'm getting better. But sometimes I need your help. That's just the way it is. It doesn't mean—it's not your fault."

"Tori—"

"Shut up. I'm right here and you're wrong, so this time you have to shut up and listen to me. What happened to Serena happened before you even knew you had powers. Okay? It happened. Because of Nicole. It wasn't your fault. You are not responsible for the vindictive, murderous bitch."

He leans away, startled, surprised by the venom in her voice.

"You're right."

"Glad you noticed."

"You're not responsible for the…what was it?"

"Vindictive, murderous bitch."

"You're not. And anything she said about you, it's not true."

"Don't make this about me."

"I think telling myself the vindictive, murderous bitch wasn't my responsibility isn't going to work."

"Not everything is your responsibility," Tori snaps. "We're a team so if you're responsible for us we're responsible for you. Got it?"

It's a little too dark, but she stares him down.

"Got it."

"Good," she growls, encouraging the light ball to glow a little brighter. It's cold out here and she could use the extra warmth. "Don't make me say it again."

They sit in silence for a long while. Tori isn't very good at comforting people; but she's getting better at the team thing, she thinks. She doesn't want to leave, in any case.

"I told Kit my powers are—" Daniel struggles to find words that won't make it too difficult to deal with. "That they're lethal."

"First time's hard. I—it's hard. It gets easier."

She's never killed someone the way Chloe and Daniel have, with deliberate precision. But she's killed enough people by accident (killed her mother by accident), used enough lethal force to save her own skin, that she knows her slate isn't clean anymore.

"It wasn't hard for me. I just...after I heard her confess, I just did it."

"Maybe lawyer won't be enough. Judge is definitely your calling."

Judge, jury, executioner.

"Maya said that she watched Annie—anyway, she said she didn't care. That when she saw a threat killed she didn't care. That the lack of empathy scared her but it was part of being what she was."

"She's a predator. It makes sense."

Derek's not like that, though. Someone tries to hurt Chloe or Simon, he'll take them out, no question. But she's seen him struggling with it. Maybe it's the genetic modifications—they just brought back the Phoenix kids, psychopathic tendencies and all. They tried to fix Derek. Maybe it worked.

"That's not what it was like for me."

"Even though you got the overprotective bit down?"

"It wasn't about protecting anyone," he admits to the water. He sounds lost the way she didn't think Daniel could sound. "Tori...It felt good."

"Okay."

"It felt right," he explains, like he didn't hear her. She wonders if he's said this out loud before. "It shouldn't feel right to—"

"To you it's the same thing. Good. Right."

"That doesn't mean I should _enjoy_—"

"You did the right thing, so you enjoyed it. It makes sense, even if—would it help you if I admitted it freaked me out?"

"Yes," he blurts out. He wants someone to tell him it's wrong, since the moral compass he clings to isn't working the way he thinks it should.

"It freaks me out. It doesn't surprise me, really, but it...we are what they made us. You just have to control it, put it to a good use."

She's not happy he's been designed to enjoy meting out permanent types of justice. But that's what he was made to do. She blows things up. This is what Daniel does. It might keep them alive a little longer and she is all about that.

"What if controlling it isn't enough?"

"It's all we've got."

He doesn't say anything; she's right, or at least, pretty sure she's right. Anyway, they just sit on the rock until she starts shivering and he tells her he's walking her back to the cabin.

~O~O~

When Kit's finished his latest project, they meet up. They don't really talk about what happened—they don't have time. The Nasts had information on the Edison Project. More importantly for them, St. Clouds have drugs for Corey and Rafe and Sam. They just aren't going to share.

The next step—Hayley interrupts he meeting. "It's Corey."

~O~O~

He's in a bad, bad way. It's okay, Corey promises, despite the puke and the pain so bad he's bedridden a lot of the time. He has a plan.

"Sam and Tori need to head to Portland. Have a coffee. Do some girl bonding. Rafe, it's time to check out some family history. Maya and Daniel and Hayley need to go with you. Bring a jacket; Arizona gets cold this time of year. Derek, you really should take Chloe to Toronto. Film Festival's coming up. You should go."

"And I'll just stay here and entertain you while everyone else goes on vacation?" Simon asks.

Corey shrugs. "Go with whoever you want. I don't know. I didn't see where you went."

"I'm totally plot irrelevant." Simon sighs.

~O~O~

Rafe needs help and if the Hopi can help him Maya wants to at least try. Lauren doesn't want Derek and Chloe splitting up by themselves but she realizes Chloe's not asking permission. Tori has no desire to spend time with Sam (Simon decides to go with them, if only because they can't afford to have the two girls kill each other). But they're going to hope that when Corey sees the future, it doesn't suck.

~O~O~

Hayley doesn't go. She laughs in Maya's face and announces someone has to protect Corey and Dr. Fellows. There's no one (besides Chloe) that looks less intimidating, but when Hayley starts singing she's not useless—she's not a great offensive weapon but she's something.

"So, you were right," Corey says to Tori before she leaves. "Me. Dick. Totally don't deserve her."

"I'm not arguing with you," Tori says and kisses him on the cheek. "Feel better, Orey-o."

~O~O~

Tori _hates_ Corey.

"This is stupid," Tori says for the hundredth time. "Couldn't he have been a little more specific?"

They drive to Portland and that many hours in a car with Simon and Sam was _not_ Tori's idea of a good time. Simon tries drawing, then complains that the car was too bumpy. Since Tori got to drive (if they get pulled over, she's the one who can used magic to look older), Sam spends every mile backseat driving.

"I will hit you if you don't stop whining," Sam promises.

"Now, now," Simon hushes her. "There's a very long line to hit Tori. You have to get in the back."

"Shut up, Simon," the two girls say together. If Sam has a single redeeming feature it's that she likes Simon less than Tori does (it might be why Tori has such a problem with her, actually, but Tori's not going to admit _that_).

The rest of the drive is silent.

~O~O~

"Coffee shop," Simon says. He's pointed out every single one. Tori can't take it anymore. They're still on the outskirts of town and she can't take it anymore.

"Fine." There's a parking spot and everything. It's fate. "We're going in this one. And you're not saying another word."

Simon makes a face but gets out of the car. For a second Sam looks likes she's going to argue, so maybe Tori magics the door open. "Out," she snaps and she knows her eyes are blazing, "Now."

Sam moves (and doesn't talk).

Finally.

They grab drinks and sit in the corner and don't talk about why they're here (if Corey's got any hope for himself or is saving it all for them).

She might not like Sam, but she does value her superpowers. When Sam goes rigid in the seat next to her, Tori is quick to mutter, "What's wrong?"

"The couple that just came in," Sam mutters, too low for Simon (and anything else) to hear. "They're supernatural."

"Bad feeling?" Tori asks, catching Simon's eye, hoping her expression tells him to get ready (for what? They never know). She takes a sip of her coffee and watches them.

A man and a woman, both tall, probably not related (different supernatural types, then). She's a couple of years older than they are and he's...he dresses like he's her age, but he looks older than that. The part of Tori that still isn't very good at hand-to-hand (well, not as good as the benandanti—she's not so bad against some of the others, now) notices that they're tall. Muscular. They carry themselves like fighters.

"I think...I'm not sure but I think it's okay," Sam mutters. What Tori wouldn't give for Daniel just then, Daniel who's powers actually work and isn't afraid to make the call.

The teens keep watch. Just in case. The couple doesn't notice, just grabs their coffee, ignoring the people around them. When they leave, Tori exhales.

~O~O~

Only, as they're leaving, Sam gets a bad feeling they follow down the street. The couple is at the end of the alleyway getting ambushed. It's two on six and there's an unmarked van at the end of the street, but the couple is holding their own.

"Do we...?" Simon doesn't know. She doesn't know.

Sam takes a deep breath (she knows she isn't as good as she has to be; she has ten times the aggression but barely a hint of Daniel's power). "The two of them. We should protect them."

Tori doesn't like Sam. Doesn't trust her much either. But she doesn't want to watch two people get kidnapped and she likes getting in fights.

The fight isn't one for much longer. Tori might be able to take them all out by herself, actually, but she just focuses on one at a time. The girl's a witch, too, and Tori can't afford to have people pay too much attention.

When the fight stops the two groups look at each other.

"Who are you?" The woman asks, using her height to try to talk down to them. Tori's so used to Derek that it doesn't work.

"Just passing through," Tori explains. "Thought you guys could use some help."

"You guys, okay?" Simon asks. They still look suspicious, but nod their thanks.

"Your fight, your clean up," Sam says. Not the most diplomatically, but again the two nod.

"Good. So we'll just be—"

"I didn't hear you casting."

"I mumble. Drives my dad nuts," Tori shoots back. "I didn't hear you casting, either."

The man reaches out, puts his hand on the woman's arm. "Savannah, we don't have time—"

"I'm special," Savannah says.

"I'll say."

"Not many witches will work with a sorcerer."

"I'm cute," Simon offers. Tori closes her mouth—he's right. Telling strangers he's her brother is just going to make this worse.

"We need to get out of here," the man says. "All of us."

They turn to go—the woman calls them back. She's holding a card out to Tori. "Last thing I needed was to be kidnapped again. I figure I owe you. If you need help, call."

Tori takes the card. It's for a detective agency.

"For people like us," the guy says. He's looking at Sam, who snarls. "I'm not like you." He seems taken aback (half-demon, Tori thinks, because Sam isn't so big on the demons being a demon-hunter and all that).

"You go looking for fights, you might end up in one you can't win," Savannah says. "There's more to being powerful than just being able to say a few spells."

"I figured that one out, thanks." Saying spells is for amateurs.

Savannah snorts. "Someone tries to take you down a peg or two, call me, okay? Or if you just want to talk...witches should help each other out and all that." Tori should knock the bitch into the wall, show her what a real witch can do, but she takes the card and shoves it in her pocket. "Whatever."

She's learned to take help when she can get it.

~O~O~

Simon catches her fingering the card Savannah gave her the next day. "Call her," he says. "This is what Corey wanted us to do, I think."

"Tell her I'm a freak?"

"Tell her you're a witch who needs help. Just coffee. See what you can get out of her. It wouldn't hurt to talk."

Tori takes him in, the lanky boy who shares her genes and annoys her most of the time. "You getting tired of running, Simon?"

"We're all getting tired. We can't do it forever."

She agrees to try.

~O~O~

The supernatural world doesn't have a government. There's the interracial council, Kit says, a group of supernaturals, fighting for justice. Only they don't have the resources for real justice. If you're a killer who could expose supernaturals, you're a danger. That's about it.

Instead, the supernatural world has the Cabals. The sorcerer run institutions are the ones with the power. They're the ones who decide who's right and who's dead. The interracial council might debate things, but they couldn't protect the teens.

If they wanted to protect them.

Tori still remembers Margaret's face when Chloe went all Chloe on her ass. Margaret deserved it, of course. Duh. But Tori remembers.

Power.

Supernaturals have it. They want more of it. Chloe's got more of it. So does Tori.

Maybe Simon could live a normal life; Kit could take refuge with another Cabal (after telling them all the secrets of Tori's birth) and Simon could probably have that. Derek doesn't dare go to the werewolves (nobody in the supernatural world trusts the werewolves), but Simon and Kit could go to the sorcerers.

Tori and Chloe can't. They're too dangerous, too powerful. They either get put down or used. It's the same for the Project Phoenix kids. Worse for them, maybe. There might be a necromancer out there who decides Chloe's worth protecting. There are no skinwalkers to take in Maya or Rafe, no benandanti for Daniel or Sam, no xana for Hayley (Corey might get lucky and pass as a clairvoyant, but he's—Tori doesn't think about that).

There's no one to turn to.

~O~O~

Savannah agrees to meet up for coffee. It could be a trap, of course, so she has Sam scouting the area. Stealth isn't Sam's strong suit, but she doesn't have to be stealthy, just makes sure it's safe. "No other supernaturals," she promises.

"No calls from Corey," Simon says.

Tori orders a coffee and walks over to where Savannah is sitting. The other witch can't be _that_ much older, but she oozes confidence in her long legs and leather boots. Tough chick. Tori can handle that.

"I didn't think you'd call," Savannah says.

"Got bored."

"You got a name?"

"Barbie." Tori grins (it had been Sam's suggestion). "Barbara. Except ironic."

"Got it." Savannah glances at her drink. "Can you afford that?"

"Yeah," Tori snaps. She may be a little touchy about money. Some people may have mentioned that to her sometimes. "Sorry. Just—yeah. I'm good."

"I'm Savannah Levine. So, how old are you, Barbie?"

"Sixteen."

"Your mom tell you about witches?"

"My mom died. About a year and a half ago." Her voice doesn't shake anymore—she doesn't even think vindictive, murderous bitch. Tori had a mother and her mother had to die.

"My mom died when I was twelve." Are they supposed to bond? Savannah seems unsure herself, just says, "I know sorry doesn't help."

She wishes it wasn't Sam watching her back. She trusts Simon (and maybe even Sam) but she wants Daniel there. Maybe even Chloe.

Savannah likes to talk; likes to brag about the awesome adventures she's had. They are pretty awesome stories and Tori gets into it, laughs and gasps at all the right places. There's something that might be jealousy gnawing away at her, but she pushes it down for later. When she's back with Simon and worried about her friends, then Tori will hate Savannah for the ease with which she leads her life. Just then, though, Tori is enjoying herself.

The Sabrina School that Savannah tells her about, the one for witches that aren't freaks, makes something inside her hurt. What would it be like, to be with people like her, learning instead of being seconds away from hurting everyone she cares about because she can't control her temper?

After a while, Savannah checks her phone and stands up. "I've got to go. How long are you going to be in Portland for?"

"I don't like sticking in one place long," Tori tells her. She owes her that much of the truth.

"Well, Barbie—" and she knows it's a lie, but Tori thinks it's okay "—when you need someone to talk to, you call me, okay? Us bitches have to stick together."

It's for the sake of the people in around them, but Tori finds herself grinning.

"I'd like that."

~O~O~

All they get in Portland is a phone number and a couple of lousy coffees.

Tori doesn't mind.

~O~O~

In Arizona, they get a lot more than a phone number.

It takes them a lot longer than a night, but eventually they track down someone who can tell them about the old skinwalker legends. That someone not only has information that might help Rafe, he also knows a boy about Maya's age who...

The boy isn't there. It's pretty hard to track him down, they say. But Daniel turns the car around and they go to find the Navajo boy who just might be...

"Maya's trying to process," Daniel says. He's worried and tired, but they just have to keep going. "We're hoping..."

She wishes him good luck

~O~O~

Chloe calls a week later. "We're fine." She even provides code words to prove its true. "We're going to be another week. At least. Don't worry about us."

Tori and Simon want to storm over there right away, but Kit talks them down.

They wait (Tori calls Savannah when she's really bored). Corey sometimes doesn't talk for hours, lost in a haze of pain (present and future).

Tori takes Hayley shopping (spends every last cent she's saved trying to pretend they're normal). They try cute clothes and flirt with cute guys. For maybe half a second, they believe they really do belong. Hayley ends up sobbing in the change room and there's nothing Tori can do but use an unlock spell to get in and hug her friend.

~O~O~

The trio comes back quieter. Rafe isn't completely healed, but they're hopeful that he'll start improving. While they go unpack, Tori waits on the computer. B2 has to report in, after all, but Daniel eventually comes down to sit beside her.

"Do we do anything that's easy anymore?"

"No," Tori says and he sighs.

They sit there in silence for a while (aside from the tapping of the keys) and then he tells her about the trip, about Maya and her brother. How they met her mother. How Maya isn't dealing with anything well right now, but she's clinging to the hope it'll help Rafe. It better help Rafe.

He tells her about Corey, growing up together, growing older together. How Corey was the life of the party, how it doesn't sound like he's ever going to get better.

Tori tells him about Savannah, about her worries for Chloe. She tells him that she's figured a normal life isn't ever going to happen.

"I'm sorry," he says.

"Maybe normal's overrated."

~O~O~

Maya is the forest. Duh. Rafe's sleeping off whatever it was the Hopi did to him and Derek's not around, so Tori goes to see her.

"I met my brother," Maya says. "He's no Simon."

"I can't stand Simon," Tori lies. "Thinks every girl that sees him falls in love with him." Okay, so that part's true.

"He's...tough. Fair, though. I think I'd like him if..."

"Yeah."

"He's Navajo. I know that now. About me. My mother... " There's something awful on Maya's tongue. "She's hiding in plain sight. Skinwalkers aren't born to white women."

Maya's a runner. A fighter.

Hiding isn't her thing.

"My dad's Korean," Tori offers her. "All I've got to show for it is dark hair and superpowers."

Maya laughs until she's crying. Tori has no idea how she's dealing with any of this—Tori might be part Korean but she doesn't look it; she basically skipped over the struggling with my racial identity part because she has the privilege to keep pretending. Tori Enright, rich little white girl. She has no idea what Maya's dealing with.

She stays, though.

~O~O~

"We met the Pack," Chloe says when she and Derek get back. It's all they'll say. "We met the Pack."

Derek growls.

That night, when she's walking out of the bathroom Derek tells her how impressed he is with how hard she's been working. He thanks her.

Tori asks Chloe to be sure they didn't body snatch Derek.

"They offered—" Chloe chokes on the words, is frightened by what she almost lost. "We're his family."

Tori is glad.

(It surprises her, but she is)

~O~O~

Kit's doing his thing and they keep on the move, trying to stay one step ahead. Kit's able to do more when he isn't getting caught in the cross-fire of the people after them. He understands this. It still takes Derek a long time to convince him to leave them. But Derek understands there's other kids out there that Kit needs to help and by now they work so well together it just makes sense (Kit brings pills for Sam that don't make her bearable, but do help her control her powers better).

Home becomes a house on the outskirts of some hick town. It's right beside the cemetery and backs on to the forest, so it's pretty much the perfect location. Lauren's with them—homeschooling them. Tori's never getting out of high school at this rate. In town, they think Lauren's some hippie school teacher. They go with that.

They train (train for what? They're all starting to understand this only ends with a bang) and bide their time and go over the information Kit sends them.

~O~O~

The shopping mall isn't much, but Hayley and she like to check out what's new, even if they can't afford it. It's a place to stay, at any rate. Sam comes with them, too, and when they get to the food court, Maya and Daniel are sitting there. Sam heads to the washroom as the two other girls sit down.

"I don't get it," Maya announces. "Not that—but why is Sam with you?"

Tori and Hayley exchange knowing smirks. Tori ends up taking the fries Daniel offers her because she's afraid she'll talk otherwise. She understands why Hayley can't help it.

"Some of the cashiers here are very _helpful_."

"Very, very helpful," Tori offers and it sets them off into a fresh round of giggles because Sam is _adorable_ in love (well, totally defensive and easy to anger, but then again, that's just Sam, so).

Maya blinks. "Sam has a crush?" Even Daniel, as nice as he usually is, can't quite help the snort of amusement (Tori had started thinking Daniel might be the only person Sam _could_ care about, and that was only because of genetics, but she's glad to be wrong).

"Another two months and she might ask her on a date," Tori adds. If they're still here. But it's been two months and they're enjoying it. It's almost normal.

"We're trying to help," Hayley says and Tori sees the gleam in Maya's eye and knows they just recruited an ally. So far, Hayley and Tori's attempts to help have included numerous exchanges, including clothes they actually wanted to keep and an obsession with the badly made t-shirts the store sells. Maya's attempts to help might be a little more than that.

Daniel notices, too. "Maya. The last time you tried to play matchmaker—" Maya looks so contrite, Tori knows it had to be Nicole. "If you get involved, she might end up evil."

It's a weak joke, but the fact he can try to make is promising. Daniel and Maya have been off since the thing with Nicole (since Serena, maybe) though they keep working at it (that's just what they do).

"Corey said you wanted Daniel to hook up with Chloe," Hayley says. It's the perfect distraction.

"What?" Tori demands, _very_ offended on Derek's behalf (a little too offended for public and she concentrates on her breathing and not on Maya) while Daniel looks like he wants to laugh. He apparently didn't know either, asking, "Seriously?"

"No," Maya reassures everyone. "I just thought—someone like Chloe would help you. Before I realized she and Derek were..."

"Meant to be?" Hayley offers. It's what Tori thinks, but she's not sappy enough to say it.

"Really, Maya?" Daniel asks.

The embarrassment fades from Maya's face. "Rafe said it was dumb, too. He has this theory that you prefer girls who like to kick your ass."

Daniel's glaring like he wants Maya to combust on the spot but she just looks smug while Tori tries not to hope—because it's stupid and she is so over him and he killed someone (and would do it again, if he had to, no question). He also called her every night she was in Portland (just to check in, she reminds herself).

"Who likes girls who kick ass?" Sam asks as she comes up to the table.

"Rafe," Hayley says casually.

Sam cracks an invisible whip. It's _so_ true.

~O~O~

After work one day (she waitresses; her resume is a lie, but she works hard, so no one complains) Daniel meets up with her. He usually does when he isn't working himself (being on the run isn't cheap), but there's usually someone with him. Today he's alone.

"I was hoping we could try that thing today," he says.

He thinks he's getting stronger. Not just the repelling part (she has the bruises that prove he's better at that, now, though she still always wins), but the persuasion part. He won't practice on her though, whatever she says (even though training together is habit at this point).

"Okay," Tori says.

They start with small stuff, getting busy clerks to help them in stores, getting the annoyed server to take special care with the ice cream he gets her, getting the kids in the park to return to their parents in the middle of a game. Then they start with harder stuff. Daniel gets the busy couple to vacate the bench in the park while she eats, then he gets them into the movie theatre for free (they sneak out once they're inside—he won't take advantage of his awesome power).

There's a cop car coming so she disguises them and they set to work pretending to be vandalizing the side of a building. The cop stops them, shouts at them—and walks away.

"We weren't really doing anything," Tori says. Daniel doesn't look pleased, but she keeps going. "You have to try making someone do what they really don't want to."

Daniel knows how fast he can speed before they take his car away (they don't tell Kit or Lauren this plan) and they start racing around town. It doesn't take long before they're pulled over (not much crime around town—that's why they're there). He talks his way out of one, two, three tickets and by that time, it's not even fun anymore.

"Chloe—" Tori hates herself for bringing it up, but she wonders. "Chloe made my mom kill Dr. Davidoff. Do you think you—?"

"Can I make someone hurt themselves?" Daniel's already thought about it. She can tell. "I think I could."

~O~O~

There's a guy who comes into the diner and harasses all the girls. Tori doesn't set him on fire like she wants to when he doesn't listen to her orders to get out because she's growing as a person but she wants to. When one of the other girls tells her talking back, that girls who get on his bad side...well, no one ever proved anything but it's not a good idea...Tori decides he just volunteered.

Daniel doesn't think it's a bad idea (part of Daniel _really _likes the idea of teaching the guy a lesson and that's why Tori picks him).

Daniel stops him in front of the diner one night—tells him to go punch a cop. The guy walks away. He doesn't come in that night or the next. Tori hears through the girls he assaulted a police officer.

Daniel is surprisingly neutral about the news (neither of them are surprised).

~O~O~

"Do you know what I could do?"

Tori's thought about it. It scares her sometimes. Other times she likes the thought of it. Maybe too much.

"Pretty much whatever you wanted."

"You could be here right now just because I wanted you to be," Daniel says. They're sitting in the middle of a downtown café and Tori's positive he doesn't need superpowers to get her to go on, well, it's not a date, but to hang out together.

(Rafe believes Daniel's over Maya, but that could just be wishful thinking—it's not like either one of them can just ask Daniel and no one thinks Maya ever figured it out in the first place)

"You said you weren't going to use your powers on me."

"How do you know I'm not? I'm not even sure—"

"I'm the one with uncontrollable powers. You can control yours. They just scare you." It's the big difference between them. Once she knew what she was—Victoria Enright, witch—it all made sense. She had to work to get good at it—she wanted to get good at it. Daniel's still thinks he's human sometimes. Maybe it doesn't help having all the friends from home come with him. They forget they aren't those people anymore. "You haven't mind controlled me."

"How are you so sure?"

"Because it would be wrong," she says with a smile. "And you don't do that."

"How do you make that sound like an insult?" He's smiling, too, though. He knows she's right; he's not going to mess her up because he promised he wouldn't and that means a lot to him. Means everything to him. She doesn't always agree with his ideas on right and wrong but Daniel's not shy in explaining them and once you know them you can trust them (they won't just change on a whim and she likes that, likes knowing exactly what she does that he hates and what she does that he likes and that she can only disappoint him if…).

"Magic."

When she makes the flower on the table levitate, just a little, he rolls his eyes. He mutters, "Show-off." But he's the one that takes the flower from the table when they leave (even if he hands it to her to hold as they walk home).

~O~O~

"I hate boys," Tori explains to Hayley, slumping down beside her. Hayley barely looks up from her magazine as she says, "You're telling me."

"They aren't so bad," Chloe says. Her boyfriend is perfect (for her). And, you know, clearly in love with her instead of being the master of the mixed message. Tori understands that Nicole and Serena messed Daniel up and Maya just made it all the more confusing but...she wishes he'd just _say_ something. _Anything_.

"Your boyfriend stalks you," Sam says. It's not as mean as it once was, but...well, it is true. After a second, though, Sam says, "Sorry."

"Aw, little Sammy's in love. It's making her all soft and mushy," Tori says. Sam flips her off and they get into it a little (just a few insults, child's play for them) until Maya tells them to knock it off.

~O~O~

They manage to hide out for almost six months. Then, one day, Lauren comes home from the grocery store and says, "I think I was followed."

Chloe calls for Liz. It doesn't take long for the word to come back. "At least three trucks of guys, circling around."

"How did they find us?" Sam demands, looking around for the idiot who got them caught. Her girlfriend's in town and she doesn't want to leave even though they have to.

"Later," Daniel warns her. They don't have time now.

"Stick to the plan," Maya says. Escape through the forest. The animals will clear the way. She turns to Rafe. "Can you handle it?"

He nods; he's doesn't forget as much, anymore.

"One distraction coming up," Chloe says and goes to get their zombie army up and ready.

"Grab everything we need," Daniel says. "We go in five."

None of them need five minutes to pack, but while the cougars are ready by then, Derek still isn't. It's painful, his transformation, but he does it for the rest of them. Chloe's got Liz keeping watch, better than any alarm. When the men come, the zombies will be ready.

"Sam, you take the front. Tori and I will bring up the rear." The pets should have cleared the way for Sam—and Daniel won't let anyone get left behind. "Simon, Hayley, you guys makes sure Chloe's protected while she's working. Lauren's got Corey. Everyone ready?"

"You _kids_…" Lauren says, but they all ignore her. Chloe interrupts: "They're ready to move."

It's showtime.

~O~O~

The recently deceased human shields are super gross, but they get the job done. The cats rush out and the wolf follows and then the humans run. Simon concentrates his blur spell on himself and Chloe while Tori covers the rest as they run behind the walking corpses, trying to keep away from the bullets they can hear ringing through the air.

There's no stealth. This is an extermination mission.

They should have stayed split up.

She sees it on Daniel's face when they hit the trees. All together, they were too tempting a target. It doesn't matter. If they don't have this, what do they have?

There's screaming from behind them. Zombie's fight dirty.

Not everyone's going to be stupid enough to cross the graveyard though. They hear cougars screaming, but don't stop. The sound is comforting. If someone's in trouble, Daniel and Sam will know. Until then, they keep running.

The zombies didn't get everyone coming up behind them. Tori hits the ground when the bullets start sounding too close. Daniel prefers hand-to-hand, but she doesn't. She just blasts people away. He tugs her along. Hayley's singing—and Tori should find it annoying, it gives away their position, but the guys in earshot pause and it gives Sam a chance to get close enough to grab the gun, snap a neck.

They all have their talents.

Daniel curses beside her. He rarely does, but now's the time. Still, she looks over. There's blood on his shirt.

"They're using definitely using bullets," Daniel says. He stumbles a few steps, then collapses against her. She can feel his blood hot on her arm and his voice is weak. "I'm sorry. Tell my dad..."

Tori maybe freaks out a little.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I got a tiny bit stuck on the whole 'plot' thing, but here's the last part. Tiny, tiny spoilers for the end of th_e Women of the Otherworld_ series. Well, more my speculation, but still. Might give something away.

* * *

First, Tori freaks out.

Because he's _Daniel_ and he's _dying_ and people are _shooting_ at them and she really, really doesn't want to _die. _Keeping her cool isn't her thing. She worked out a whole complicated system with Daniel back when he was a stranger she shouldn't trust just to help her deal with the fact that her powers go nuts when she gets upset.

So the first guy who creeps up on her as Daniel bleeds out while she can't do anything but watch, well, dies.

So do the next couple.

She's not even sure how she does it. She's freaked; they die (or at least fall down and don't move; she'll worry about it later). It takes her a second, but then she realizes that Daniel's still breathing, even if he's passed out.

Second, Tori takes a deep breath and calms down.

Calming down doesn't mean being powerless. That's what all the training was for, to ensure that calming down never, ever means being powerless. Electricity sparks from her fingers and she sends it through the trees.

Third, Tori has a plan.

It goes like this. Sensing spell. Energy bolt. The simplest plans are the best. There's still panic and fear, just under the surface, and she knows if she looks at Daniel again she's going to lose it. So she sticks to the plan. Sensing spell. Energy bolt. She calls on the power of her mixed heritage and freaky genetics and takes on anyone dumb enough to fight her.

~O~O~

"It's okay, Tori," Simon says to her. He's holding her up because she's very, very tired. But she...

"I got them all. Right?"

"You sure did. Are you—?"

"I'm fine. How is—?" But the words don't come and she's terrified of looking some place other than Simon.

"Daniel's fine, Tori. See?" He turns them so she can watch Maya and Rafe, Daniel between them. Someone's ripped off his shirt and they're doing something to his chest. "Or he will be. Maya won't let him not be fine."

The older girl glances back and gives Tori a look—a promise.

Tori glances around, sees Derek on two legs. "What happened to running away?"

"Not anyone left to run from," Derek says gruffly.

"You, um," Simon looks helpless. "Blew up the forest."

She did not blow up the forest. Yes, in every direction there are long rows of downed trees and what might have been small fires the rest of them had put out while she was busy making sure the Cabal Team couldn't get close. But it wasn't that bad. If you squinted.

"Imagine if I hadn't done it on purpose."

"Liz can't find anyone else," Chloe says, coming beside Tori and taking her hand. "We figured we'd just give Maya and Rafe a second to fix—Liz'll tell me if someone's still out there."

Tori takes a step and almost falls over except Simon's still beside her. The world is moving underneath her and that's not very nice. Sam brushes Chloe out of the way. Simon on one side, Sam on the other, they help Tori to the van.

"What about—?"

"Derek'll take Daniel," Sam says gently.

At the quick reply, Tori feels her face flush. She's exhausted, but not enough so that she isn't embarrassed. It's one thing to like a guy. It's another thing entirely to have Sam be nice about it.

Simon tucks her into the van. When Derek comes in a long while later, he puts Daniel in so that his head—Tori glares. But she keeps his head on her lap and runs her fingers through his hair and tells him to hold on. Since, you know, he's already there.

~O~O~

"So, uh, what did you tell Daniel?" she asks Maya. She knows it doesn't come out smoothly. At this point, it hardly matters.

They're at a motel far from the city. Daniel gets his own room, where Maya and Rafe hurry to heal him. The rest are planning. Tori is hiding. She will admit that (not out loud, or to another person, but to herself; she is very much hiding).

"That he got shot. We got away." Maya's lips twitch. "That you were a little protective."

Tori glares and Maya burst out laughing.

"He wants to see you," Maya says. "But he also said that you think people make bad decisions when heavily medicated, so he said he'd wait."

"Okay."

"For now, Tori." Tori has never liked Maya's eyes. Mostly because of the eye sex with Rafe, but what she's doing just now, the amused, fond emotion in her eyes, Tori doesn't appreciate either.

"Jeez, you save a guy's life and all of a sudden he thinks—"

"He's hoping." It stops Tori; might have made her heart do this weird thing, too. "This is the part where I remind you I've known him forever. When we were in Arizona, he—he wasn't happy on the nights you couldn't talk."

Tori is not blushing. She is much too cool for that. Besides, Maya hadn't been able to figure out when Daniel was in love with her, so Maya's opinion doesn't mean all that much.

Still, Maya can rip Tori's throat out with her teeth, so Tori just mutters, "Oh."

Maya wraps an arm around her waist. "Come on," Maya says, "Let's find something to eat."

~O~O~

Corey laughs when she goes to see him.

"Oh, so today you decide to remember who I am?" Tori maybe whines. It's harsh because he usually doesn't remember and Hayley glares at her, but he just laughs again.

"Orey-o, you are super hot when you get mad," he tells her with a wink. "Poor guy won't know what hit him."

"A bullet hit him."

Corey gets serious. "He's okay." He says it for his benefit just as much as hers. It wasn't part of the plan Corey can barely remember when he's having a bad day.

"Let's keep it that way."

"Yeah," Corey agrees. "I was just telling Hayley I think they found us using a clairvoyant; we need to figure out how to counter that."

That's really, really bad, Kit says.

Cabals only use clairvoyants when it's really important. To prevent what's happening to Corey from happening. If they were willing to use a clairvoyant to find them...

Kit gives them an even longer list of measures they should take to protect themselves. It's all they can do. For now.

~O~O~

The second Daniel is well enough to travel, they start moving again. They ditch the car, take a bus, borrow another, anything to get away. Tori doesn't even have time to feel awkward about the forest thing because they have much more important things to worry about.

Anyway, the second the others leave him behind at the motel of the day in order to secure more provisions, she takes a deep breath and goes into his room so they can get this out of the way.

His hair's sticking up and Daniel hasn't bothered with a shirt (the bandages get in the way—even Maya and Rafe's healing can't perform miracles) and Tori just wants to kiss him, mess up his face the way the rest of him is messed up. She doesn't though; it's easy to see how he's leaning against the wall for support.

He should be in bed, but he wants to check the exits himself.

"You son of a bitch."

Okay, so maybe they aren't the most romantic words ever spoken. Tori's too pissed to care.

"Tori—"

"Getting shot is not okay. Or a good idea. It is a very bad idea and, like, the dumbest thing you've ever done and—"

"Can I—?"

"No," she announces. "You got shot and you don't get to talk anymore. You almost—"

The half hysterical _sound _that comes out of Tori's mouth just then is pathetic. She's trying to sound authoritative but she just sounds scared. And tired. Mostly scared.

Daniel doesn't say anything about her voice. All he does is push himself off the wall, coming towards her.

"I'm serious," she says, hands up, because she's dangerous that way. He doesn't care, just keeps getting closer. "You almost die on me again—"

"I'm sorry," he says and just like that her anger is gone. All that's left is the fear in her stomach that she cannot deal with. "I didn't get a chance to thank you for saving my life, with everyone around before. Thank you, Tori. It was amazing."

"I know."

That part's true. The magic is super impressive.

He laughs, looks so cute she just wants Chloe to split open the earth and have it swallow her whole.

"It might be the nicest thing anyone's ever done for me," he says and he's taking another step closer and she's not sure if she wants to step back or faint. She maybe shuffles forward a bit herself.

"There's not very many people who can stand being around me."

"There's some."

"Yeah?"

"I—"

He bites off his answer, whatever it is. Tori wants to hit him. She settles for babbling.

"I took out a forest. And a bunch of Cabal goons, too. Let's not forget those. I think I've made my feelings here pretty clear. You can read them from the sky, clear. And meanwhile you haven't said..."

His good arm ends up around her waist. It's a very nice hand he has, settled against the small of her back. It's only a one armed hug—the other arm's got all these bandages, but still. Does a girl have to do everything around here herself?

"Any time you want to talk," she snaps.

"I can be very convincing when I talk. I can't take the chance—I won't do that to you."

Oh. And yes, she still thinks boys are stupid, but she gets it—after seeing the way it scares him for so long, she has to get it. The way it makes him nervous, the way he has to be sure. He keeps his feelings to himself (and Maya) and that's the way he thinks it has to be. It doesn't mean—

His hand is burning through the thin material of her shirt. Oh.

There's the solution, then.

"So don't talk."

There's a hint of a grin on his face and then his hand's not on her waist, it's cupping her face and he's leaning down or she's leaning up or, anyway, it really doesn't matter. Daniel is kissing her. Daniel Bianchi, benandanti, totally should have been a quarterback in another life, but it's not another life, it's this one, so he's going to be one hell of a demon-hunter one day—and he's kissing her. Nice and slowly, until she wants to just push him against the wall and—but he has too many bandages on already.

When he pulls away, she licks her lips. It's been a while since she's been kissed. She's never been kissed quite like that. Her boyfriends...she's never met anyone quite like Daniel. There's a stupid grin on her face that she can't stop.

"Think you get it?"

"More explaining," she murmurs.

"Okay," he says and gets back to kissing her.

~O~O~

Since he did just almost die on her, Tori doesn't mind torturing him a bit (a lot). She leaves him long before the others get back, makes him get in bed and orders him to sleep, tells him to leave the planning to the people who don't have holes in their bodies. When the others get back, no one says anything about how she stayed behind (or about her swollen lips). It's more a sign of how much Daniel's near death scared them than anything else. Lauren looks old and tired, but Tori doesn't care.

When the girls go to their room for the night, Hayley gives her a smile and Maya gives her a wink (Sam looks like someone killed her puppy, but that's not because of Tori).

It's Chloe Tori practically drags outside.

"So he likes you."

"That didn't sound like a question," Tori notes.

Chloe laughs at her. "We suspected. I mean, when he told Derek to lay off you I think he was just being nice but when he started spending all that time with you...you didn't seem to mind. I thought you might like him, too."

"For ages," Tori complains. She doesn't tell Chloe everything—doesn't tell Chloe how he kissed her neck and whispered in her ear, how he told her was in awe (exact words) of how strong she was, how he'd been wanting to mess up her hair for ages—because Chloe is the useless blonde girl that Tori can't stand. Except maybe Tori does.

~O~O~

Sam pretends she doesn't have a broken heart. It doesn't work—Sam hasn't gotten into a fight in days.

~O~O~

"It's my sister's birthday today," Hayley says one day. "I wonder if she has powers, too. Or if she ended up like Nicole."

Tori rarely thinks of Lara—she forgot her sister's birthday completely. Lara never had problems; if she had powers at all, they were easy enough to control. Tori has a sudden desire (that she blames on the exhaustion) to see her sister, to find out for herself. She wants to storm back into the house and demand her sister prove once and for all which one of them is better—there's a pile of mulch that says Tori's going to win. And she wants to see her dad again, her dad who—

"We're never going to get to go back."

The words come out before Tori can stop them, but she feels their truth as they spill from her lips. She learned there was no going back the night she called her father and her mother came instead. But...even though she wouldn't have admitted it, part of her still believed that somehow, someway, she would be able to return. Now, even in her secret heart of hearts, Tori knows it's not happening.

She can't go back.

"I know," Hayley says, hitch in her voice. "I—I know."

Tori hugs her friend and doesn't say that maybe it's a good thing. Maybe, just maybe, it's the best thing that could have happened to them.

~O~O~

Kit calls to check on them all the time, of course; Simon and Derek are his sons, even if they have the best supernatural body guards around. The boys keep in touch with their father, but Kit makes sure to talk to Maya and Daniel, too, makes sure the Project Phoenix kids are getting the orders he wants them to get.

After yet another call in yet another small town that isn't going to hide them for long, Daniel comes to sit beside her in the café. She's busy and he knows it; the phone call is nice, but the internet is better.

"What?" she asks, when she looks up to see him smiling to himself.

"Kit mentioned how important it was that I stay focused. Twice."

"Are you saying you find me distracting?"

And he kisses her and that's nice, she heartily approves of that. It even manages to distract her from...

"How does Kit know?"

"Derek told him."

"Told him what, exactly?"

"I got shot; you got us out of there; we're together."

"Oh, so we're together now? 'Cuz I don't really remember you asking me."

"Tori..." It's not a game, not to him. He's lucky she's fine with being the one to make...well, whatever move they're on now.

"You are my boyfriend. To be clear." When he smiles, Tori forgives him for making her be the one to say it. "But only if you realize I'm awesome."

"Realized that already."

Okay, so his nose is warm and it tickles and his hand on her cheek feels nice and he's kissing her and kissing is good, Tori missed kissing. But when she pulls away, she adds, "If you tell me you like me, I promise not to turn into a stalker."

Bringing up Nicole isn't the best idea. It ruins the vibe, most definitely. But she has to put it out there.

"It wasn't just that I was worried about having persuaded you to like me," he admits. "I needed time to—I know I might worry over you more than you think I should, definitely more than you need me to, I just—"

"You have good reasons." Serena. Nicole. Cabal goons out to kill them. Tori gets it. Theoretically. She gets it a lot better when he's kissing her.

"I'm sorry I'm such a mess."

"You should be."

"I'm working on it."

"You should work faster."

He laughs. "You're really super understanding, you know?"

"I've been told that."

"I really like you," he says, still laughing a little. "And I'm glad you're my girlfriend."

"Well, that's a start. Is that what you told Kit?"

Daniel groans and buries his head in her neck; maybe she squeals at that, a little. His breath is hot against her skin. "I promised I wouldn't let anything distract me from keeping you all safe."

Which he won't.

Tori cannot believe she finds his obsessive need to be responsible this hot. Before, on the outside, she put on a good front: good grades, good friends, good daughter. But this isn't a superficial thing with him; it goes all the way down. But his definition of good is something all of its own and maybe that's what makes all the difference.

"I can't believe Derek told him."

"I can't believe it took your overprotective brother this long." He kisses her neck, so lightly she thinks she imagined it; it still makes her shiver. "I think he likes me. When he doesn't think I'm dead wrong, which is a lot more often then I'm used to."

Watching Derek and Maya and Daniel try to be so very reasonable and logical while they all think they're the only one who's right is always vastly entertaining.

"Derek's not—he doesn't think of me that way."

"Yeah, he does. He might not like you—"

"He definitely doesn't like me."

"Okay," Daniel admits easily. Yeah, Derek doesn't like her. "But you don't get to pick your family."

It's just because of Chloe. Maybe. Maybe it's…maybe it's not just because of Chloe.

"Oh." Her fingers tighten in Daniel's shirt. "He didn't threaten you did he?"

"Derek knows you can take care of yourself. I think Simon was going to try, but Derek reminded him that, you know, we aren't living in a country music video."

"And anything Simon can do, I can do better."

Maybe Tori cackles a little bit before she goes back to making out with her really hot boyfriend.

~O~O~

Dating while on the run isn't exactly dating. Chloe and Derek have ways, of course (still together after all this time, though Tori frankly doesn't think Derek has it in him to even consider you don't have to like just one person _ever_). Maya and Rafe also make good use of the forest, but for all that Tori can totally show the forest who's boss with her eyes closed, it's not really her favourite place to make out.

"Amen," Hayley says. If Corey wasn't losing his mind, he would have lost something else after Hayley tells her the tale of Corey, the forest back home and a pathetic attempt to get to third base. Classy, Orey-o.

They have more important things to worry about. There are people trying to kill them, after all. Still, they are teenagers. It's a little weird that Simon, who really can pick up girls even on the run for his life, is the only one who manages to have sex...more than once.

Tori's thought about it (thought about it more now that sparing with Daniel usually ends with a kiss or two or twelve) but not a lot. She's always been a girl who's careful about her body and Daniel isn't the kind of guy who pushes (wasn't the kind of guy who pushes—now he's the kind of guy who needs an engraved invitation). Whatever is between them, it's still pretty new.

Rafe and Maya she thinks did, at some point, but then he started turning into an animal so they stopped. They're off-again, on-again thing is a little too complex for Tori to understand (too complex for them to understand, she thinks). Hayley's grieving (you can grieve for the living, Tori's learned). She'll flirt with Simon, sometimes, but they all know her heart's not in it (Simon really only flirts back to be nice).

Sam's still recovering from just having to disappear on her girl, though trying to talk about it gets Maya a split lip. Even Daniel almost gets a fist in the face (he just manages to duck in time).

Derek's too scared to hurt Chloe and for now she hasn't pushed. She's probably a little bit scared herself (Lauren is not helpful, is the exact opposite of helpful to her teenage niece who's starting to get curious about sex, but Chloe has Tori who has the internet so Chloe knows all about safe sex, thank you very much). Werewolves are still scary, even if Tory would destroy anyone who ever said that.

Not having sex doesn't mean Chloe and Derek aren't up to anything.

They're somewhere in Kansas, in a temporary safe house, and Tori's sharing a room with Chloe and Chloe is the one who says, "Do you mind if I switch with Daniel tonight?"

She does it for Chloe and Derek, who really don't have enough alone time together. This thing with Daniel ...a girl has standards. She doesn't want to rush it. But Derek spends a lot of time with Maya and Rafe and she can understand why Chloe gets a little frustrated. So she tells Chloe, "Derek and I are better at sneaking around."

Which is true.

A blur spell and she can slip into the boys' room without anyone seeing. She likes the nod Derek gives her, a tiny thank you that's really all she wants, before he creeps silently down the hallway.

It's nice, what with all the responsible talk and the incurable belief he has in his own rightness, to be reminded that Daniel is just a teenage guy. One who is so totally into her. One with great taste, obviously.

Really, they probably should have just gone to sleep, maybe snuck a few kisses or two, but she likes this, the way she feels warm, the way her body feels like it's being stretched taunt in the most delicious ways, the way his eyes have a slightly glassy look to them. Because Daniel is not the perfect gentleman she expected him to be, grabby and demanding and pleading, and she likes this side of him when the only thing he's worrying about is touching her, kissing _her_.

Okay, when people say Tori is a little power mad? They might have a point.

"Yum," she says between kisses.

"Tori," he warns her and it makes her laugh, that he's trying to sound disapproving just now. She's not a tease; but she doesn't mind if he thinks she is for a minute or two. "Tor—"

He makes himself stay quiet, so afraid of hurting her and then she's furious at the people who did this to them, who made it so he has other things on his mind right then when all he should be thinking is 'wow, I'm so damn lucky my girlfriend is this super hot.' She wants to smash something; she kisses him so hard it hurts.

They pull apart after that; he even gets up to use Derek's bed. They're both still panting a little, but she tries to make herself calm down.

"It's okay," she tells him softly. "You need to stop being afraid of what you can do."

"How?"

Lucky for him Tori's learned a few tricks about how to stop being afraid.

~O~O~

They talk. A lot. Everything and anything she can think of. Her old boyfriends used to call her high-maintenance but Daniel doesn't mind that. As long as he knows what's on her mind, he doesn't care what it is. Sometimes, she thinks he likes the frivolous stuff the best because he knows for sure that's not his influence.

She even makes him a list, written down and everything, of what she'd be comfortable with, so he knows ahead of time that, while it's not a to-do list, if they go there, it's not because he made her.

It helps.

But what really helps are the fights.

Not like that, because she can (and does) kick his ass blindfolded in training, so there's no point in them fighting each other. But in a 'go to a new town and find bad people doing bad things and see if Daniel can't feel better teaching people a lesson' type fights. If there were any doubts (if there were, they weren't Tori's), the look in Daniel's eye after the first one settles it. He might like fighting more than she does. She likes proving she's powerful; he likes the results, bad guys with tails between their legs, running off, promising never to do it again.

So Tori find them and traps them and lets Daniel teach them a lesson they won't soon forget (can't forget, not when his words get stuck in their heads). She can't help feeling a little proud of herself, at the way it helps him feel more comfortable in his own skin, knowing she's not scared (knowing she could watch him make people sorry forever). After all this time on the run, it's nice being the ones setting the rules for a change.

They bring Sam along, too, sometimes, because the girl needs to get out and it's good training. Sam might be broken-hearted but she's still Sam; she's a whole lot more bearable after she hits someone (the more people, the better).

~O~O~

Daniel does wonder why he can't call her Victoria and she threatens never to speak to him again, but other than that, it's good.

Well, aside from being on the run for their lives.

~O~O~

"I can't decide," Maya says to her one night, "If you trust him that much or if you're just that arrogant, that you don't think his powers will work on you."

From behind Maya, Sam says, "She knows they work on her."

Though he barely has to use them anymore—Tori can almost always control her powers now.

Tori glances up from the computer screen to watch their carefully neutral faces. "Is this an intervention?"

"I need people to want to do what I ask them to do for it to work," Sam says slowly. "He could get someone to kill themselves without them even thinking of fighting back."

They have to want it, though. Not necessarily what he was ordering them to do, Daniel explained a bunch, but part of them had to want to listen to orders or to give up control or to take a break from fighting or something that let him hook in. He could make people work against their own best interests, but first he had to figure out how to make it appealing. So the guy who punched a cop just wanted to commit more violence; the vandals in the last town wanted the attention cleaning up the neighbourhood would bring.

"That's just a theory," Tori says. He's tempted to try, she knows, but the others would disapprove (if only because it would draw too much attention to them), so he can't, she says, and he's pushing down the feeling for now.

"I know the Daniel I grew up with wouldn't do anything to you," Maya explains. "But…"

"None of us are the people we were," Tori agrees. "But he's not using his powers on me."

That or he's a great actor. When she asked him to show her what it felt like it took her forever to convince him to try and all he did was make her jump up and down. He'd been upset afterwards, too, that he'd done even that.

Maya nods. "So it's arrogance."

"Duh," Tori says with a smirk. When Maya refuses to laugh, she drops it. "If he wanted a mindless servant I'm not really the way to go."

"You are a pain," Sam admits. Tori flips her off and Sam snaps back and Maya tells them to please grow up.

"It's okay," Tori says, "That you're scared of what we're becoming. But you shouldn't be. He's not, anymore. It's awesome, what we can do."

"Sometimes when I look at you," Maya explains, "All I see is food."

"You want to eat me? I think you've got the wrong—"

"Don't even," Sam warns her. Tori shuts up, even though it would have been funny.

Instead, Tori tells Maya, "You try to eat me and I'll stop you. When Rafe…we took care of him then. We're a team. We'll help, if something goes wrong."

Maya gives her a small smile. "Maybe it's sweet, that you trust him that much."

Tori just returns her attention to the computer.

~O~O~

Simon gets sick.

Between him and Derek, they're usually wonderful about monitoring his blood sugar. But sometimes they have immediate life and death problems to worry about and Simon's diabetes become (a very important) secondary concern.

They all help out every way they can but after yet another escape, Simon ends up having to go to the doctor.

It's not bad, but when Derek brings Simon to where the rest of them are holding up, Simon looks tired. They're all tired.

"I miss school," Hayley says suddenly. They all glare, but she glares right back. "What? I miss school. I miss it. I miss being normal."

"Simon," Tori begins, "You could—"

"Shut up," Derek says to her. Simon's too busy glaring. Oh, please. Like she was going to be all self-sacrificing, getting them to leave so they'd be safe. She wasn't even thinking it.

Chloe leans over and whispers, "I've tried. They just don't listen."

"There might be a way," Maya says slowly. She's not sure, wants to be sure, but they don't have the luxury of that any more. Maya has the inclining of an idea and they're too tired not to try to make it work with everything they've got.

~O~O~

"What have you heard about the interacial council?" Tori asks Savannah on the phone. Derek's calling the werewolves, even though they won't like it, not since he turned them down, so she can do this. Having a friend whose life she doesn't occasionally have to save (and who doesn't occasionally have to save her life) is one of the few things that keeps her sane. Not that Savannah is her friend, ew, Tori totally has better taste than that, but it was still nice. She hopes this conversation doesn't freak Savannah out too much.

"They're the good guys. No question."

"You sound sure."

"You could say I've had a couple of close encounters with the interacial council. I know what I'm talking about. You can trust them." Savannah never hesitates for long; Tori likes that about her. "Or you could trust me and tell me what your deal is."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Please. You practically scream 'I have a deal.' And asking about the interacial council makes me think it might be a big one. They'll help you. But maybe I can, too."

"You own a Cabal?"

"Not yet."

"Well, when you do, then maybe you can help."

"The council is meeting in two weeks. If I give you the info, will you show up?"

"You could be setting me up."

"You're too young to be that paranoid," Savannah says, starting to sound pissed. Maybe not at Tori. "Okay. I get it. I'll give you what info I have on the next couple of meets, so you can take them by surprise. They don't have the resources to have twenty-four hour security."

That's the problem. But Tori says thank you and means it.

"They'll help you," Savannah promises.

"I've heard that one way too often."

~O~O~

With Kit's data and Corey's visions, Derek and Maya hash out a plan. It's not that complicated, but they spend hours worrying over everything. They have to. The rest of them listen and offer suggestions, but they trust them. When it comes time, they trust Daniel will be able to persuade everyone else that it's a good idea.

They trust each other.

United we stand, divided we fall and all that.

Daniel thinks about working that into his speech for a minute, but Derek nixes it. Daniel's powers work best when the words come from him.

~O~O~

They've scouted the town out a month ahead of time, so when the time comes they just walk into the building where they interacial council is having its meeting. They know the exits. If this goes wrong, they'll have to fight their way out.

It takes a long time to figure out who gets to go in. Daniel, for sure, because he's doing the talking, but Derek and Maya argue for ages about who goes with him, since it wouldn't do to have too many predators scaring the council. Derek argues his superior strength makes him better equipped but Chloe quietly points out the surly attitude won't help. In the end, though, the fact he's a werewolf and the others aren't means Derek gets his way.

Everyone—absolutely everyone, Derek included—tells Tori to bind him if he starts getting snippy. All they have is their words and the ability to look pathetic, so that's what they're going to use.

Tori's going in for sure; it's not a debate because she's the best offensive weapon they have when there aren't dead bodies around. They do argue whether Sam or Hayley should go. All Sam can do is fight while Hayley can calm a crowd with the right song and Hayley looks tiny enough that no one should think she's a threat, but Sam might be able to sense if something bad is about to happen (Daniel will be concentrating on other things). In the end, Sam's experience with Daniel tips the scale. They know how to fight together, if it comes to that.

They hope it won't.

But Chloe will provide one hell of a distraction in case they need to get away, so Tori's not worried.

The security is limited though; they're all on edge, but they get in easily enough, pausing right before the doors to the hotel's meeting room.

"We relax when this is over," Derek orders them all.

"Down boy," Tori mutters and then she's pushing her way through the door because she doesn't want to listen to Derek's response.

Tori goes in first because her powers are strong, and because they might pass for normal if you're not looking too closely, and because like hell is she going to let anyone else pay the price if this goes FUBAR right away. As soon as she walks in, someone stands up, but a binding spell takes care of that and then Daniel's behind her, saying, "We're sorry for the interruption. We weren't sure how to get on the schedule. We need to talk to you. I promise we don't want to hurt anyone."

A woman, a very short woman with curly hair, stands up slowly and doesn't look too scared of the four teenagers in front of her. Sam's scowl is pretty impressive and so are Daniel's arms, if Tori does say so herself, but Derek can't help being scary even if they're all trying to look as non-threatening as possible. The short woman and Daniel do the politic-y stuff that Tori doesn't care about (except that if she ruins it, her life might be over), so she just keeps watch, making sure no one makes a move towards them. Savannah's leaning against the back wall.

"You're on the freaking council?" Tori demands. Loudly. Whoops.

Savannah doesn't mind the attention. She points to the short lady and the tall Hispanic guy beside her. "That's Paige and Lucas. And that's Adam," she adds, pointing to the guy Tori saw with her before. Tori finally makes the connection.

"So you're doing part of the council. You could have mentioned it."

"I could have, Barbie."

Sam snickers like she always does. Whatever (It's the first time Tori's heard Sam laugh in a long while).

Derek's growl interrupts. Tori picks out the werewolves, then; the werewolves are the ones who don't jump.

"Since you knew we were coming—" Daniel's worried, Tori doesn't have to look over to know; probably about to pull the plug on the whole thing.

"We knew you were coming; we still don't know why." Even Tori can tell short and curly—Paige, who doesn't look the way Tori imagined Savannah's do-gooding step-mother would look like at all—is holding back on them. They might not know who the kids are, but they have an idea. But the plan could still work, so Daniel asks for a chair.

They talk it out.

Yay, for diplomacy.

~O~O~

Afterwards, Tori complains to Savannah. "You could have warned me." She's actually getting a little repetitive.

"If I told you it was safe, would you have believed me?"

"Still should have told me."

"They'll help," Savannah says. "They're the good guys."

"Good guys without any power."

"No wonder they didn't let you talk."

"Blondes get better results." They explained what the benandanti can do, of course, but no one needs to know just how damn good Daniel is at it. No one's going to question why they let the blonde All-American guy talk for them (even the interacial council can't help a little quiet sexism/racism/whatever the reason they don't mention Daniel's technically Canadian).

"When this is over," Savannah says after a moment, "I'll let you look at my grimoires. That'll make us even."

"Is that the world's creepiest come on line? Because you're way too annoying to be my type."

"Ha ha." But Savannah's smirking now. "Grimoires are spell books. You and the grimoires are going to be epic."

Tori has to agree with that.

~O~O~

Tori wakes up early one day and for once doesn't stay curled under the blanket. There's this thing where her boyfriend doesn't really sleep much anymore, just paces around and broods and it's not at all attractive. Since she's awake today, she grabs a bagel and heads to the porch.

Daniel's sitting there, watching who cares what.

"Hey," she mutters and when she settles beside him he wraps an arm around her. That's nice. She likes that. He's warm and the morning air is cool and the contrast just makes her shiver in a good way. "You going to tell me what's wrong or are you going to make me guess?"

There's a small noise that could be a chuckle. His fingers brush through her hair—he is obsessed with making her hair stick up; finds it adorable because he's an idiot—and he relaxes just a fraction.

"The Alpha agreed. She gave the go ahead. We're on for thirteenth."

Predators don't belong to the Cabals is the point—how far the Pack will go to make this point is still up in the air but once, on record, might be enough when combined with the other stuff. The next phase is about to begin.

"So it'll be over, then. One way or another."

Daniel laughs. "You're cheerful this morning."

"I'm your little ray of sunshine," she agrees, just to hear him laugh again. His face grows serious (something about this being a life or death situation for them, maybe).

"If it works—when it works," he corrects himself because he's hoping his powers work on him, too, "We might be able to have stable lives."

Not normal lives.

That dream was chased out of them a long time ago. Supernaturals don't get normal lives.

"But?" Tori asks.

"The Edison Group might break up but there's no—they could do it again. They will do it again. We can't stop it."

"We could," she says. "We could hunt down every last single son of a bitch who did this to us, who helped do this to us, who thought about doing this to us. We go after them. Let them know we're coming, too. And then we take them out. We could do it; hell, I bet the two of us could do it by ourselves."

Daniel laughs and pulls her closer, so she's half on his lap. That's very nice.

"Go all Bonnie and Clyde on them?"

"Sounds fun," she murmurs against his throat and she smiles when he shivers.

"It wouldn't be enough. It still wouldn't make what they did right."

"I don't mind what they did that much," she says. Not the trying to kill her part (or the killing Liz part), but the other part. The part where her fingers grow warm and when she puts her hand on her boyfriend's thigh he jumps. And his eyes darken and it's quite nice.

"It's not what they did," he says as he grabs her hand. "It's that they thought they could."

The kiss is a preview for something Tori's beginning to think she wants (she's seventeen, but she feels older and younger all at the same time). There's something she finds reassuring about Daniel, though. He'll always pull her back before it gets too dangerous.

"So what do you want to do?"

"I don't know," he admits.

"I want a new laptop."

Daniel laughs and tugs her so she really is on his lap, now. This kiss is short and sweet. "I'll make sure to start the list of demands with that. Tori needs a new laptop."

"And a new wardrobe. Since you're making a list."

"I like your wardrobe." The shirt is threadbare and worn and almost see-through. Probably not almost, if Daniel's grin is any indication. "But we'll put it on the list if you want."

"I want."

"This list is going to get very long, very fast, isn't it?"

"Probably."

"I should have brought paper out here." He's smiling but he looks tired; a lot of their plan depends on getting the right people to listen and even Sam can't help him with that.

"I'm sorry we can't help you more."

Because if there was a fight, she'd be there. She'd take on every single Cabal for Chloe and Derek and Simon (the makeshift family that means more than her real one ever did) and for her friends (friends who she gets into fights with, but friends she'd fight to the death for, every time). But it's not a fight, so she just has to trust in all the work they've put in before.

"You do," Daniel says quietly. He's tired but his expression makes her blush. "You've been amazing, Tori. It's kind of why I'm in love with you."

There's never been a boy who stuck around long enough to say that. There's never been…Tori thinks she loves Chloe and Simon and Derek, but they don't say things like that. The last time anyone's said that to her, said it and meant it, it must have been—well, her parents never said it. Maybe Lara said it, once or twice when they were kids, before she became the sister from hell.

It's _nice_, she decides. Which works, because that's what she thinks about Daniel, most of the time.

"Okay," she says, because she has to say something and her brain isn't really her friend right then. Daniel seems to understand—he kisses her, so clearly he understands something. Kissing is good. Kissing is always good when it's him.

When they pull apart, she rests her head on his shoulder. "We can make the St. Clouds squirm a bit."

He laughs. "I'd like that."

"Good. I love you, too."

"I like that, too," he says and kisses her again. This time, they pull apart when Derek comes by, clearing his throat.

"Good morning," the unfriendly neighbourhood werewolf snaps. They take it as a sign and go get breakfast.

~O~O~

They travel to Miami and find a motel on the outskirts. They all stay together in the single room they've rented (what the hotel clerk doesn't know won't hurt them). They need to stay together tonight because if this works—well, that'll be it. This is it.

If it works.

She and Hayley have a nice talk (about boys, fashion, hair—normal people things) and then they both go sit by Corey and even if he doesn't remember who they are every single minute he remembers he cares about them for at least a couple of minutes and they'll take it.

With Chloe, Tori apologizes—Chloe says it doesn't matter. Tori ends up crying, but they don't say anything about that either.

She tells Rafe she's glad he's back, tells Maya she's wishes she could be here when she grows up (Maya understands what she means; they're cool; Maya's letting her date Daniel, so clearly Maya doesn't hate her).

Kit takes her aside and tells her that no matter what happens, he's glad he got the chance to know her. He's proud he's her father.

When Kit moves on, Simon's there. "Hey, little sister."

"Oh, please," she snorts (it sounds funny because her nose is stuffed but she can't help that). "I can still beat you up."

They get into some of the old defense moves he once taught her, trying to flip each other onto the ground. They're laughing so hard by the end, they both end up on the ground, but it doesn't matter. After the laughter stops, they just lie there, quietly, beside one another.

"Think it'll work?" Simon asks her quietly.

"Yeah."

He breathes deep; she wonders if it hurts him as much as it's hurting her right then.

Right before she heads to bed, Derek comes up to her. He hugs her. That's all.

That's everything.

The only thing she has are her superpowers and her people. It's enough.

~O~O~

Miami is a bureaucratic, political nightmare but there's a lot more than one or two trigger happy gun toting idiots around so Tori's not bored. She doesn't even get to listen to Daniel's speech (though she's heard him practicing it enough times) because she's got all her attention focused on the room around them, watching all the men in suits who want to cut Daniel open as they stare at him as he demands they stop treating the kids like science experiments.

There's other speeches of course. Tori almost falls asleep from all the speeches. There's one from the Alpha—the blonde woman doesn't look all that scary, but she snarls, once, near the end, talking about how they killed the three boys they created, and damn if the men in suits don't all jump. Lucas, Savannah's foster father, isn't nearly as scary, but the men almost look respectful and that doesn't seem to be something they do all that often, so it might be a good thing.

It's not really the speeches that are the important things, Derek and Maya had explained (over and over). It's that once everyone knows—once everyone knows everyone else knows—once word carries from the supernaturals in the board room to the supernaturals around the country that the Cabals executed children who are _not_ dangerous, thank you very much, then it'll be that much harder for anyone to kill them.

So when the speeches are over the very nice men in suits start offering them jobs.

~O~O~

The only part of the mess in Miami that Tori isn't bored out of her mind for is the end.

Everything is hopeful and sunny, so she grabs Daniel and drags him downstairs. Might as well make out in the garage—and it's a sign of how giddy he is, how relieved he is that it worked, that he managed to pull it off, that Daniel just laughs as she pulls him through the building. He doesn't even stop to worry about how dangerous it might be.

And they're making out on the hood of a shiny black SUV when the guys in the black suits clear their throats.

"Sorry," Tori says, pulling her shirt straight, "Hey, you guys are the St. Clouds, right?"

The look Daniel gives her just then she remembers for a long time. It's a very nice look.

"No hard feelings," Daniel says diplomatically, sticking out his hand. There are four men there (and a lot more bodyguards) and they take the hand Daniel offers because they still want the kids even if now they have to play nice to get them. Tori wasn't listening to the speeches, but it doesn't matter. Daniel was paying attention. She knew he'd be listening. All Tori does is make sure that the St. Clouds think Daniel mumbles when he speaks to each one of them in turn. If he lingers with the one in his fifties who once thought funding crazy scientists was a good idea, no one seems to notice but her.

The St. Clouds leave.

He doesn't kiss her afterwards. It feels good but he isn't going to celebrate it. It's just what he is.

"What did you say to him?" she wonders very quietly.

"I just said I hoped he felt as guilty about what he did as he should."

"You hoped?"

"I may have phrased it differently."

Tori wraps her arms around him and lets him lean against her. He's had a really long day.

"You did good," she tells him.

"We did okay," he agrees.

Alastair St. Cloud kills himself two weeks later.

(it takes that long for the guilt to eat away at him and Tori thinks that it says a lot about the guy)

People speculate that he was falling on his own sword, giving the company a scapegoat, but they aren't talking about it all that much. Supernaturals who screw up often end up dead.

No one says it could be the guilt—Cabals don't feel guilty.

Neither does Tori.

~O~O~

The Cabals are still the assholes who created children they couldn't control and tried to kill them for it, but they've got unlimited bank accounts and if you can't buy forgiveness, no one ever told that to the Cabals. They offer everything they can think of—especially to her and Chloe, the girls who would have been put down for sure, but are valuable now because they managed to survive puberty without ending the world (wasn't that lucky?).

Chloe is a little less than polite when she tells them to go to hell. Tori is so proud.

Chloe's going home to her father and if she turns up missing again all the Cabals are going to start pointing fingers at each other, so it's better if she doesn't turn up missing. Tori figures going home might also have to do with Derek relocating to New York state. Simon and Kit are going to Buffalo, too, even though Kit's going to stay on the go. He still has things to organize, mistakes to atone for, making sure the lists of names of kids the St. Clouds messed with is complete.

If it's complete, no one goes missing. The interracial council tells them to trust the Cabals to police each other, so they will.

The werewolves give the cougars territory, mostly in the southwest, (not just Maya and Rafe, but all the other kids Kit had found and hidden over the years, the names the St. Clouds had been forced by the others to make public) and the Cabals are advised to stay out of their way.

Predators don't share.

There's a lot of reuniting with parents that makes the Tori want to scream, though she likes Hayley's sister a lot and Corey's mom looks so glad to see her son whatever condition he's in that Tori can't help smiling through her tears. Sam bawls when her fake aunt shows up for her and Tori should be laughing but she finds her eyes suspiciously wet for that, too.

Daniel's dad doesn't show, but he's not surprised. The Delaney's offer to take him in (they have to take Rafe in and they don't look like they know how to respond to that). Daniel says no thank you; he's eighteen now, anyway. He doesn't say that Maya isn't the daughter they remember. It might have been Rafe who started forgetting he was human, but there's something decidedly animal about all the skinwalkers.

Or maybe it's just that they aren't quite human. None of them are and all the happy family reunions might be touching, but that's because no one's admitting it just yet.

Almost all the families end up settling for deals offered by any Cabal but the St. Clouds. Too bad, so sad.

The Nasts—well, the Nast Corporation that he agreed to talk to, apparently against the other Nast corporation on principle—promise Daniel they'll pay for school, law school and everything else he might want. He is a little geeky about the whole thing, but Tori doesn't make fun of him too badly because the fact everyone just assumes they can get her into MIT when the time comes is kind of really cool. Part of the reason he picks the Nasts is because he likes Sean Nast, CEO, when Savannah introduces them. Thinks Sean is the sort of guy who does the right thing, even if it isn't what people might call good.

Part of the reason he picks the Nasts is because they are very good about paying for his travel expenses (Tori thinks they know exactly how Daniel would play in front of a jury).

Cambridge isn't that far from Buffalo if you can afford to take a plane.

It isn't like Tori can leave her family, okay? She is just seventeen; she has to stay with Kit.

Tori is too busy taking tech classes and Sabrina School classes to worry about the whole job thing (though she works internships with both the Cortezes and the Nasts Daniel doesn't hate to test things out). Witches aren't really welcome in the Cabals and she isn't so keen on working with organizations that think people like her are second class citizens, even if they recognize she is totally better than the rest.

There is always the interacial council. They could use some real fire power.

Tori's keeping her options open.


End file.
